
Class /, B /jD^S 

Book l£1.?7— -. 

Gwriglitl^" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSin 



/ 

METHODS OF TEACHING 






A HAND-BOOK OF 

PRINCIPLES, DIRECTIONS, AND WORKING MODELS 

FOR COMMON-SCHOOL TEACHERS 



BY 



JOHN SWETT 

PRINCIPAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL AND NORMAL CLASS 



"Special preparation is a prerequisite for teaching. "—Horace Mann 



\f 



NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1880 



■7r 



LB/a2f 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 
In tlic Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 

All rights reserved. 



PREFACE. 



This book is intended — 

(1.) For use in normal schools and normal classes as a 
basis for instruction in methods of teaching. 

(2.) For tlie use of those who intend to become teach- 
ers without taking a course of professional training. 

(3.) For experienced teachers wlio believe there is 
something to be learned from the suggestions of others. 

The characteristic features claimed for this manual are : 

(1.) Its strict limitation to the essentials of common- 
school instruction. 

(2.) Its condensed and specific directions. • 

(3.) Its working models for beginners. 

The attempt to reduce teaching-methods to condensed 
statements and bird's -eye views is beset with many dif- 
ficulties readily appreciated by practical educators. But 
what the young teacher most needs is a definite direction 
or method: he will learn to make for himself all neces- 
sary qualifications and exceptions in schoolroom practice. 
My chief purpose has been, therefore, to make, not an ex- 
haustive treatise on education in general, but a volume of 



iv PKEFACE. 

principles, directions, and working models for tlie prac- 
tical guidance of the rank and file in the great army of 
common-school teachers. 

In the statement of general principles in education, I 
have quoted from the thinkers and writers of the present 
rather than the past, in order fairly to present advanced 
•ideas, and to give the young teacher occasional glimpses 
of a modern educational literature outside of mere hand- 
books and text -books. The practical directions, drawn 
largely from the common stock of school methods, are 
substantiated by oj^inions cpioted from eminent living 
American teachers and superintendents. The working 
models are made up of exercises that were prepared for 
use, and were actually used for several years, in a large 
public school. The whole book, indeed, owes its exist- 
ence to the practical needs of a normal class-room. 

Personal experience in teaching is a good school, but a 
slow and costly one. Looking back over a varied experi- 
ence of thirty years, I deeply realize how great would 
have been my vantage-ground had I begun with a more 
thorough ^professional training and a wider acquaintance 
with educational literature. If I have failed to seize 
upon essentials, the failure is not from lack of opportu- 
nity to observe the need of them. In a new state, I have 
taken a part in the organization of a school system almost 
from the beginning. My personal experience includes 
actual teaching in country, city, ungraded, half-graded. 



PREFACE. V 

graded, evening, primary, grammar, liigli, and normal 
schools, and several years' service in state and city super- 
intendence. Though not so good as I would like to make 
it, this book is submitted with the hope that it may save 
some beginners from wasting time and efforts in un- 
profitable empirical experiments, and that some veteran 
teachers may find in it a confirmation of principles and 
methods arrived at in the course of their own life-work. 

For criticisms and suggestions I am under special obli- 
gations to Professor George A¥. Minns, of Concord, Mass., 

and to John Muir, of California. 

J.S. 



CONTENTS. 



PAET I. 

GENERAL FRINGIPLES OF EDUGATION. 



CriAPTEK I. 
SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. ^^^^ 

I. General Remarks 1 

II. The Science of Teaching • 2 

III, The Art of Teaching 5 

ly. The Profession of Teaching 10 

Y. The Next Step 1^ 

YI. The Scholarship of Teachers 16 

YII. Teachers' Associations 19 

YIII. Educational Power 20 

IX. The Common-school System 21 

Chapter II. 
PHYSICAL TRAINING. 

I. Its Importance 23 

II. AVays and Means 27 

III. Practical Directions 28 

lY. Industrial Training 31 

Y. Technical Education 32 

YI. School Hygiene 34 

YII. Rules of Health for Pupils 37 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

ClIAPTEE III. 
MORAL TRAINING. 

PAGE 

I. General Remarks 39 

II. The Sphere of School » , . 40 

III. Possibilities and Conditions 42 

IV. General Directions from Herbert Spencer. . . 44 
V. Practical Hints 45 

Chapter TV. 
INTELLECTUAL TRAINING. 

I. Classification of the Intellectual Faculties . . 54 

II. The Perceptive Faculties 55 

HI. The Expressive Faculties .58 

IV. The Reflective Faculties 59 

Chapter Y. 
SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

I. Corporal Punishment 64 

II. Self-control 06 

III. Public Opinion of the School 67 

IV. Emulation 67 

V. School Discipline 68 

VL Obstinacy 69 

VH. School Despotism 69 

VHL General Principles from Herbert Spencer. . . 70 

IX. Condensed Directions 71 

X. Punishment 75 

Chapter YI. 
SPECIAL DIRECTIONS FOR SCHOOL-ROOM MANAGEMENT. 
I. Special Directions and Suggestions for Principals. 78 
H. Special Directions for Assistants 85 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

III. Management in General 88 

IV. Condensed Directions for the Class Teacher . 91 
V. Methods in Recitations 95 

VI. The Minimum of Rules 98 

VII. Specific Directions for Pupils 98 

VIII. Directions about Written Examinations ... 99 

ClIAPTEK VII. 
THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 

I. General Remarks 101 

II. Things Essential 103 

III. Miscellaneous Things 110 

IV. Minor Matters 113 

V. Advantages of Country Schools 115 

VI. Condensed Directions 117 



PART 11. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOB TEACUINC COMMON- 
SCHOOL ESSENTIALS. 



Chapter I. 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES FROM 

I. John Stuart Mill 121 

II. Thomas II. Huxley 121 

III. Superintendent Eliot 122 

IV. Alexander Bain 122 

CirAPTEE II. 
CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING READING. 

I. Directions 123 

II. Quotations from Educators 129 



X CONTENTS. 

Chapter III. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING SPELLING, WORD- 
ANALYSIS, AND DEFINING. 

PAGE 

I. Spelling 132 

(1.) Spelling 132 

(2.) Spelling-games 134 

(3.) Written Exercises for Primary Classes . 135 
(4.) Written Exercises for Grammar Grades . . 136 
(5.) Oral Exercises for Grammar Grades. . . 136 

II. Word-analysis 136 

(1.) Directions 137 

(2.) Word-matches 138 

III. Defining 139 

Chapter TV. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 141 

Chapter Y. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING LANGUAGE-LES- 
SONS, GRAMMAR, AND COMPOSITION. 

I. Language-lessons and Grammar 150 

11. English Composition 155 

(1.) Directions FOR Teachers 155 

(2.) Directions to be Given to Pupils .... 156 

Chapter YI. 
CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 

I. Directions 157 

II. Geography Matches 161 

III. Geographical Exercises 162 



CONTENTS. XI 

ClIAPTEE YII. 
HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

PAGE 

I. Directions 164 

II. Class Exercises 167 

Chapter YIII. 

OBJECT-LESSONS AND THE ELEMENTS OF NATURAL 
SCIENCE. 

I. Hints on Object-lessons 168 

II. Elements op Natural Science 171 

III. Quotations from Educators 176 

CHAPTER' IX. 
WRITING AND DRAWING. 

I. Hints on Writing 178 

II. Hints on Drawing 180 

III. Quotations from Educators 182 

Chapter X. 

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. 

I. Music 184 

IL Manners 184 



PAKT III. 

WORKING-MODELS IX ESSENTIALS. 



Introductory Note 187 

Chapter I. 

WORKING-MODELS FOR READING-LESSONS. 

I. Lessons in Word-making 189 

II. Lessons for Primary Grades 100 



Xil CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

III. Miscellaneous Exercises 191 

IV. Lessons for Lower Grammar Grades .... 191 
V. Lessons for Higher Grammar Grades . . . .194 

Chapter II. 

WORKING MODELS IN ARITHiVIETia 

I. Lessons for Beginners 196 

II. Lessons for Second Term or Year 207 

III. Lessons for Third Term or Year 212 

IV. Drill Exercises in the Four Eules 213 

V. Working Models in Common Fractions . . . 215 

VI. Fractions for Grammar-school Grades. . . .219 
VII. Working Models in Mental Arithmetic . . . 224 

VIII. Working Models in the Tables 227 

IX. The Metric System 230 

ClIAPTEE III. 
WORKING MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 

I. Globe Lessons for Beginners 233 

II. Second Series of Globe Lessons 236 

III. Lessons in Local Geography 239 

IV. Climate and the Zones 242 

V. Questions on Local Weather Conditions . . . 243 

VI. Local State Geography 244 

VII. Compositions on Geography 246 

VIII. Facts about Our Own Country 249 

IX. Facts about the Continents 251 

X. Physical Features of the Globe 253 

XI. General Review Questions 255 

Chapter IV. 

LANGUAGE-LESSONS AND CO.AIPOSITION FOR BEGINNERS. 

(a.) Copying Short Stories 258 

(h.) Sentence-making 262 



CONTENTS. XUl 

PAGE 

(c.) Letter-writing 264 

(d.) Short Compositions 265 

ClIAPTEE Y. 
PRACTICAL COMPOSITION IN GliAMMAK GRADES. 

I. Narration and Description 269 

II. Letter-writing 270 

in. Imaginative Letters 270 

IV. Abstracts from Memory 271 

V. Stories of the Imagination 271 

VI. Short Descriptions of Trees 272 

VII. Metals and Minerals 272 

VIII. Manufactured Articles 273 

IX. Geographical Compositions . 273 

X. General Exercises 274 

XI. Biographical Sketches 274 

XII. Historical Sketches 276 

XIII. Natural History Sketches 277 

Chapter YI. 

WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 

I. The Simple Sentence 279 

II. The Complex Sentence 287 

III. The Compound Sentence 293 

IV. Examination Questions in Language-lessons and 

Grammar 295 

Chapter YII. 

PUNCTUATION OF SENTENCES. 

I. The Simple Sentence 300 

II. The Complex Sentence 303 

III. The Compound Sentence 304 

IV. Quotation Marks 306 



xiv contents. 

Chapter YIII. 
RULES FOR WRITING GOOD ENGLISH. 

PAGE 

L Words 307 

II. Order of Words 310 

in. Brevity 313 

IV. Figurative Language. 814 

Chapter IX. 

REVIEW QUESTIONS ON THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED 

STATES 319 

Chapter X. 
PRACTICAL HINTS IN SCHOOL ETHICS. 

I. Lessons for Younger Pupils 322 

II. Lessons for Older Pupils 323 

IIL A Teacher's Minimum Library 325 



METHODS OP TBACHi:^a. 

PART I. 

GENERAL rRfflCIPLES m EDUCATIOK 



Chapter I. 

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 

I. GENERAL REMARKS. 

Theee is a profession of law, of medicine, and of the- 
ology: is there a profession of teaching? The skilful 
practice of any pursuit is termed an art: is there an 
art of teaching? There seems to be a popular opinion 
handed down from the past that anybody who has been 
''educated" can teach school ; and that there is no art of 
teaching, no science underlying the practice of teaching, 
and therefore no profession of teaching. In most parts of 
our country, the impression prevails that anybody who can 
pass an examination and get a certificate is a duly qualified 
teacher, and, consequently, that no specific preparation for 
teaching is necessary other than personal experience de- 
rived from actual work in the schoolroom. And there 
is some ground for this opinion. Out of 300,000 teach- 
ers in the United States, not more than one in ten is a 
graduate of the normal school ; of the remaining nine 

tenths, some have fitted themselves by thorough self-cult- 

1 



^ METHODS OF TEACHING. 

lire to do the best kind of professional work, but more 
are merely unskilled school-keepers. Of this latter class, 
most have gained little b}^ experience except a narrow 
conceit in their own empirical methods. Knowing noth- 
ing whatever of modern investigations in ph3^siology, bi- 
ology, and sociology, they sneer at all attempts at form- 
ulating the principles of teaching into a science. 

In our educational centres, however, it is evident that 
the opinion is steadily gaining ground that education is 
based upon scientific principles, and that there ought to 
be a profession of teaching. The number of normal 
schools grows larger year by year. In several cities only 
normal graduates are employed as teachers ; and in many 
places the preference is given to professionally trained 
teachers. Moreover, teachers' institutes and associations 
are diffusing a professional spirit more and more widely; 
the number of men and women who read educational 
journals and imbibe their progressive spirit is far in ex- 
cess of former times ; and, at length, some school-officers, 
and a few thinkers among citizens at large, begin to give 
evidence of a nebulous perception of the truth that teach- 
ers, as well as lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and artisans, 
need special training for their business. 

II. THE SCIENCE OF TEACHING. 

^'In every department of human affairs," says John 
Stuart Mill, '' practice long precedes science ; systematic 
inquiry into the modes of action of the powers of nature 
is the tardy product of a long course of efforts to use those 
powers for practical ends." 

The science of teaching is a classification of principles 
derived by observation, investigation, and experience from 



SCHOOLS AND SCIIOOL-TEACIIING. 3 

a, knowledge of things to be taught, and from a study of 
the child to be ti^ained. The object of school education 
is to aid the mental, moral, and physical development of 
the child by means of appropriate training and instruc- 
tion in the kinds of knowledge required by existing social 
conditions as an outfit for the duties of life. From ao^e 
to age school instruction has been modified to meet the 
new wants of each succeeding generation occasioned by 
each successive advance in civilization. 

The child, too, is a variable factor. It is an old saying 
that human nature is the same in all ages the world over ; 
but this proverb, despite the wisdom of our ancestors, is 
a fallacy. The child is not plastic clay in the hands of 
the potter, nor a sheet of blank paper to be written upon ; 
on tlie contrary, it is a bundle of inherited tendencies 
and capacities. Education merely aids development, and 
directs latent tendencies ; it cannot create powers, and 
often fails to control them. Teaching, therefore, must 
depend in a great measure upon the transmitted nature 
of the child to be taught. The child of prehistoric man, 
born in some cave at the close of the last glacial period, 
had little except form in common with children now 
living in New York, London, or Berlin. It is evident 
that the child of an Apache Indian or an Australian sav- 
age cannot be trained successfully by the educational 
processes wdiicli are adapted to the hereditary capacities 
of children that represent the highest type of human de- 
velopment. 

Hence no one particular age can prescribe the methods 
of education for succeeding ages ; no one nation for all 
other nations; no one race for all other races. Schools 
are an organic growth of society. They represent, more 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



or less perfectly, the wants and spirit of a nation. Mod- 
ern methods of teaching should therefore represent the 
existing state of knowledge and civilization, not the obso- 
lete learning or methods of past ages ; but traditional cult- 
ure, like customs, manners, habits, and laws, too often holds 
sway long after the causes that organized it have ceased to 
act. " Like political constitutions," says Herbert Spencer, 
" educational systems are not made, but grow, and within 
brief periods growth is insensible." 

While it cannot be claimed as yet that teaching is a 
fully developed science, great progress has been made in 
formulating the j^rinciples that underlie the best of our 
present methods of instruction. Educational history is 
full of errors, most of which were the result of empirical 
methods. Exj^erience in this field, as in every other, in 
order to be of any value, must be the result of experi- 
ments directed by the light of science, and must have for 
its objective point the welfare of every child in the na- 
tion, ''^o matter how limited the strictly scientific do- 
main of education is considered to be," says Mr. Soldan, 
of St. Louis, " it cannot be denied that there is such a 
science; and it should be mastered before the practical 
duties of teaching are assumed. In other pursuits the 
tyro may be allowed to spoil and waste tlie first piece of 
work, but in teaching the material is too precious to ad- 
mit of useless experiment." 

" Our teachers," says Mr. E. L. Youmans, Editor of the 
Popular Science Monthl}^, etc., "mostly belong to the 
old dispensation. Their preparation is chiefly literary. 
Their art is a mechanical routine ; and hence, very natural- 
ly, while admitting the importance of advancing views, 
they really cannot see what is to be done about it. When 



SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 5 

WO say that education is an affair of tlie laws of our being, 
involving a wide range of considerations — involving, in 
short, a complete acquaintance with corporeal conditions, 
which science alone can give — when we hint of these 
things, we seem to be speaking in an unknown tongue ; 
or, if intelligible, then very irrelevant and unpractical." 

" The teaching method," says Professor Bain, "is arrived 
at in various ways. One principal mode is experience of 
the work : this is the inductive, or practical, source. An- 
other mode is education from the laws of the human 
mind : this is the deductive, or theoretical, source. The 
third and best mode is to combine the two ; to rectify em- 
pirical teaching by principles, and to qualify deductions 
from principles by practical experience." 

in. THE ART OF TEACHING. 

"Art," says Professor Joseph Le Conte, "is the result, 
at first, of the empirical method ; science always of the ra- 
tional method. Art leads upward to the comprehension 
of science ; but science, when sufficiently perfect, turns 
again and perfects art." 

The art of school-teaching consists in the skilful appli- 
cation of the great body of rules and methods deduced 
from science, observation, experiment, and practice. In 
other words, the art lies in teaching according to laws 
based npon a scientific knowledge of the nature of the 
child to be instructed. 

" Successful teaching," says Mr. Dickinson, Secretary of 
the Massachusetts Board of Education, " is the product of 
knowledge, skill, and experience. The teacher must have 
a good knowledge of the mind, of the facts he is to teach, 
of the sciences which rest npon them, and of the end to be 



6 ISIETIIODS OF TEACHING. 

secured by school-work. lie must have skill in applying his 
method, or he will fail to awaken right ideas, or he will do 
for the pupil what the pupil should do for himself, or he 
will talk too much, or spend time in teaching what is not 
worth ku owing. He must have experience, or he will 
be liable to violate all the principles of good teaching in 
attempting to apply them." 

It is an axiom in the art of teaching that it is what the 
child does for himself and hy himself under wise guid- 
ance^ that educates him. 

ISTow, the untrained and unskilled teacher, ignorant of 
the laws of mind, believes that children are educated 
mainly by what they are told, or by what they commit to 
memory from books. lie fills all children to the brim with 
facts. Like Gradgrind and M'Choakumchild in Dickens, 
he seems "a kind of cannon, loaded to the muzzle with 
facts, and prepared to blow the boys and girls clean out of 
the regions of childliood at one discharge." His fetich is 
the school text-book. It is ugly, but he w^orships it, and 
makes his pupils bow down before it. To him the child has 
but one intellectual faculty, and that is memory. He en- 
Y\^i'&])ain in his service, and drives his pupils by main force. 

Mill says that if there is a first principle in education, it 
is this : " That the discijDline which does good to the mind 
is that in which the mind is active, not passive ; the secret 
of developing the faculties is to give them much to do, 
and much inducement to do it." Tyndall says, " The ex- 
ercise of the mind, like that of the body, depends for its 
value upon the spirit in which it is accomplished." Spen- 
cer says, " The child should be told as little as possible, 
and induced to discover as much as possible." But the 
unskilled teacher blunders along as if Mill, Spencer, Tyn- 



SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 7 

dall, Froebel, and Pestalozzi had never lived, tlionglit, ob- 
served, discovered, and written. He recognizes no educa- 
tional authority but himself. lie teaches in the " good 
old way" handed down by imitation from the past — a 
" way " still perpetuated, not only in common-schools both 
in the city and country, but also in not a few high-schools 
and colleges. 

Agassiz said the worst service a teacher could render a 
pupil was to give him a readj^-made answer ; but the school- 
keeper tells everything in advance. Spencer, Bain, Come- 
nius, and other educators agree that in every branch of 
study the mind should be conducted to principles through 
the medium of examples, and so should be led from the 
particular to the general, the simple to the complex, the 
concrete to the abstract, the indefinite to the definite, the 
empirical to the rational or scientific. But the unscientific 
teacher violates all these rules. In arithmetic, he begins 
with definitions, continues in abstractions and mechanical 
rules, and ends in puzzling problems. In grammar, he 
omits the actual use of lano^uaofc in expressino: thouofht, 

CD CD L O O 7 

and devotes his attention to the technicalities of parsing 
and analysis. In geography, he is content to have his pu- 
pils memorize names regardless of ideas. In history, he 
strings dates like wooden beads upon the thread of mem- 
ory. In reading, he trains pupils to call words without 
much reference to meaning. In botany, he takes books 
before flowers, and in physics omits experiments. Object- 
lessons he regards with disdain. In fact, he does not edu- 
cate at all ; that is, he does not draw out, train, and disci- 
pline ; he does not awaken curiosity, nor excite inquiry, 
nor develop discrimination. 

In view of the charlatanism and empiricism so wide- 



8 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

spread in methods of instruction, we may well be tolerant 
towards tliose who assert that there is, as yet, in our com- 
mon-schools, neither an art nor a science of teaching. 
" Our schools," said Agassiz, " are the treadmills of knowl- 
edge, while they might be made the living sources of 
knowledge." 

Mr. Dickinson, of Massachusetts, says, in his recent re- 
port, " The old methods of teaching are still generally 
practised. Lessons to be committed to memory are still 
assigned from books ; and then the teacher, by question 
and answer, conducts the recitation." 

A state superintendent, who had made, during a four 
years' term of office, hundreds of visits to country schools, 
recently stated that he never once saw a teacher conduct- 
ing a recitation without a text-book in hand ; that he sel- 
dom saw either teacher or scholar at the blackboard ; that 
he never saw a school globe actually in use ; that pupils 
seemed to know nothing of local geography, and when 
asked to point north, uniformly pointed overhead to the 
zenith ; that he saw but one school cabinet ; that he never 
saw a teacher give an object-lesson ; and that he never 
found a school where pujDils had been taught how to write 
a letter either of business or friendship. 

An examiner in one of the ten largest cities of our 
country says that he found many classes of children in 
the primary department who, after attending school three 
years, had never made a figure or letter upon the black- 
board ; that oral lessons were copied into blank-books and 
memorized by pupils ; that the school globe was used 
only to show that the earth is round ; that most of the 
teaching consisted in hearing verbatim recitations; that 
in more than half the recitations written answers were 



SCHOOLS AND SCIIOOL-TEACIIINa. 9 

required ; that pupils were worried by frequent written ex- 
aminations ; and that the anxiety of teachers seemed to be 
not to develop the faculties of pupils, but to get them 
throngh the annual official written examination into the 
next higher grade. This crude teaching was the result, 
partly of bad supervision, and partly of untrained teachers. 
Such work is the natural outgrowth of the popular notion 
" that anybody can keep school." And it is hopeless to 
expect that teachers who are ignorant of their own igno- 
rance, who have grown wrongheaded from haphazard ex- 
perience, and conceited from their narrow-mindedness, will 
ever become anything more than machine teachers, mark- 
ing their pupils with a stencil-plate. It is this class of 
pedagogues that Carlyle has so graphically made immortal 
in the following paragraph : 

" My teachers were hide-bound pedants without knowl- 
edge of man's nature, or of boys, or of aught save lexi- 
cons. Innumerable dead vocables they crammed into us, 
and called it fostering the growth of the mind. How can 
an inanimate mechanical verb-grinder foster the growth 
of anything, much more of mind, which grows, not like a 
vegetable by having its roots littered by etymological com- 
post, but, like a spirit, by mysterious contact with spirit- 
thought kindling itself at the fire of living thought ! How 
shall he give kindling in whose own inward man there is 
no live coal but is burned out to a dead grammatical cin- 
der? My professors knew syntax enough, and of the hu- 
man soul this much — that it had a faculty called memory, 
and could be acted on through the muscular integument 
by the appliance of birch-rods." 

The greatest waste of time and money in our school- 
system comes from the employment of untrained teachers 

1^ 



10 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

who, finally, Iccarii how to teach after a fashion ; but who 
spoil a great many classes before they learn how to teach 
at all. The true economy of school management is the 
employment of professionally edacatecl teachers, and the 
exchision of itinerants and bunglers. " The chief func- 
tion of the normal school," says Thomas Hunter, Presi- 
dent of the 'New York Normal College, " is to prevent 
machine teaching." Our common-schools need not more 
laws, rules, and regulations, but better-trained teachers in 
the school-houses. " A good school," says President Eliot, 
of Harvard University, "is a man or a woman." 

IV. THE PROFESSION OF TEACHING. 

Except in a few colleges and universities, it cannot be 
said that there is in our country aprofessioji of teacliing. 
There are, it is true, many men and women who have 
made teaching their life-work ; but they have little or no 
legal recognition as professional teachers. The peripatetic 
]3edagogue is found only in the remotest rural districts on 
the borders of civilization, yet all teachers are still regarded 
by law and by custom as itinerants. In many states " the 
law" requires teachers to be examined annually for a cer- 
tificate " to teach a common-school one year." In every 
state of the Union, law — or custom stronger than law — 
requires that teachers shall be appointed annually " for 
the term of one year." But in no state does " the law " 
require any professional training w^hatever as a prereq- 
uisite "for teaching a common -school one year." Tlie 
lef>:al status of the teacher is strictlv in accordance with 
the popular fallacy that anybody who can, in any way, 
get a certificate is fit to keep school. In a few states and 
cities there is a protozoic indication of an order of de- 



SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 11 

velopmcnt higher than that of the single-cell certificate ; 
bnt, before teachers can gain a j)rofessional footing, there 
must be some general sj^stem of permanent diplomas au- 
thorized by state law, as are medical diplomas, or licenses 
to practise law. 

Have we not reached such a stage of progress that a 
normal-school diploma may safely be taken ^^ prima facie 
evidence of fitness to teach, or that the life diploma of 
one state may be legally recognized in every other 1 Must 
local exclusiveness stand forever a Chinese wall in the 
way of the school-teacher? Must all teachers, when they 
change their residence, forever be compelled by legal en- 
actments to halt at every state line, or city limits, or dis- 
trict boundary, and submit to an " examination," in order 
to prove that they are not educational "tramps?" As 
long as " the law " requires teachers to submit to frequent 
and humiliating examinations, so long will school officials 
regard them, if not with contempt, with "a certain con- 
descension." 

The annual election or appointment of teachers is an- 
other legal barrier against teaching as a profession. It is 
not possible to dignify as a profession an occupation in 
which men and women are subject to an annual loss of 
place at the caprice of ever-changing school-boards. Even 
under our civil-service system, by which places are parcelled 
out as spoils by the victors, the tenure of position is at least 
four 3^ears. There is need of school-service reform as well 
as of civil-service reform. There is only one large city in 
our country in which the tenure of a teacher's place is 
during good behavior; everywhere else appointments are 
made annually "for the term of one year." 

Among the minor influences tending to prevent the 



12 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

recognition of teaching as a profession are the short terms 
of school officials, the multiplicity of state laws and city 
ordinances, the low rates of teachers' salaries, and the al- 
most total lack of any discrimination in wages between 
trained teachers and raw recruits. Before there can be a 
supply of professional teachers, there must be some de- 
mand for them by the people whose children go to school. 
There is still another stumbling-block in the way of the 
professional teacher in the large cities where boards of 
education are elected by direct vote at general elections, 
and that is the influence of w\ard politicians in securing 
places for friends and relatives as a reward for political 
or partisan services. In the days of his power, Tweed was 
a dictator of school appointments in 'New York, and in 
smaller cities innumerable smaller Tweeds are still dictat- 
ing appointments. As long as there is a public disposi- 
tion to regard school departments as charitable institu- 
tions where needy and politically useful persons can be 
respectably pensioned, just so long will it be impossible to 
secure professional teachers. 

People are apt to put too much faith in systems, and 
too little in devoted, educated, and skilled men and wom- 
en. " It will be a sorry day for the development of Amer- 
ican life," sa3's Superintendent Hancock, '^when school 
authorities shall come to consider organization and method 
in our school sj^stem, however perfect, a substitute for 
brains and character in the educator, or to look on me- 
chanic as the equal of dynamic teaching." '' If there be 
one profession," says Tyndall, " of paramount importance, 
I believe it to be that of the schoolmaster." 

John D. Philbrick, Ex-Superintendent of the Boston 
Schools, says, ''We cannot too often repeat the great 



SCHOOLS AND SCIIOOL-TE ACHING. 13 

fundamental maxim, 'As is tlic teacher, so is the schooL' 
In the administration of a system of public instruction, 
therefore, it should be the first and foremost aim to select 
superior teachers, to retain them in service, and to insist 
iipon constant progress in excellence. I trust the time is 
not far distant when no teacher will be permitted to as- 
sume the responsibility of conducting a primary school 
who has not been first thoroughly trained to the art in a 
model school." 

V. THE NEXT STEP. 

It must be evident that the weakest point in our school 
system is the very general employment of untrained teach- 
ers. The sheet-anchor of our hope for improvement is in 
the establishment by legal enactments that only those jDcr- 
sons shall be eligible to secure teachers' certificates who, 
as a prerequisite, shall have graduated from a normal 
school, or shall have pursued in some other school a satis- 
factory course in the science and art of education, all hold- 
ers of existing certificates to be ranked as professionals. 
In the outset, this plan can be carried into full effect only 
in the larger cities and towns. It will be impracticable to 
establish such a standard of attainments, for a long time 
to come, in the ungraded country schools, kept open only 
a part of the year ; but to bring public opinion up to this 
point should be the objective aim of every educator. 
There are persons born with the natural capacities to 
make superior instructors, but there are no "born" teach- 
ers ; tliey are the product of technical training superadded 
to education. Emerson's general statement applies with 
special fitness to the education of the teacher : 

" Our arts and tools give to him who can handle them 
much the same advantage over the novice as if you ex- 



14 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

tended his life ten, fifty, or a hundred years. And I think 
it is the part of good-sense to provide every fine soul with 
such culture that it shall not, at thirty or forty years, have 
to say, ' This which I might do is made hopeless through 
my w^ant of w^eapons.' " 

It is true that not all graduates of medical schools be- 
come good physicians; not all graduates of theological 
schools become eloquent preachers ; not all graduates of 
art schools become great artists ; and not all graduates of 
normal schools become efiicient teachers; but in all these 
cases there is a far greater probability of success than 
there would be with persons both unt7xmied and tcntried. 
Professional schools do send out teachers w^ith some knowl- 
edge derived from the experience of educators, and some 
conception of right methods of instruction. 

There are in the United States about 100 public normal 
schools which graduate about 2000 teachers every year. 
Into the standing army of 300,000 teachers there are en- 
listed annually at least 20,000 raw recruits who have to 
learn how to teach at the public expense. These facts 
do not indicate that the people have yet been educated up 
to the belief of Horace Mann, " that normal schools are a 
new instrumentality in the advancement of the race." 

We need not on tliis account, however, despair of the 
future. From the very nature of the school systems, our 
progress must be slow. We have a multiplicity of state 
laws, hundreds of city charters and city boards of educa- 
tion, thousands of town committees, and tens of thousands 
of district trustees. Uniform advancement is impossible. 
The school district is the unit of political organization, 
and every district is, in school affairs, an independent 
republic, or rather a local democracj^ The schools are 



SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 15 

improved only by the pressure of public opinion, and can- 
not rise higher than the average intelligence of the com- 
munity of which they are the outgrowth. But being 
under the direct control of the people, they are vitalized 
by the American spirit, and their progress is as certain as 
the advancement of civilization. 

In addition to the present system of normal schools, the 
colleges and universities — especially those maintained by 
the state — should establish professorships of the science 
and art of education, and provide postgraduate courses 
for those who intend to become school-teachers or sujDcr- 
intendents. It is true that a college course, of itself, may 
fit a graduate for some kinds of special teaching ; but it 
certainly fails to prepare one to become a good general 
teacher or principal of a public school. "Professors of 
the theory, history, and practice of education" have been 
appointed in the universities of Edinburgli and St. An- 
drew's, Scotland ; and there is a movement to establish 
similar chairs in some of the English universities. In our 
own country, this measure has been urged by many prom- 
inent educators who consider it essential to the future 
w^ell-being of the common-school system. "Mr. William 
Harold Payne has been recently appointed Professor of 
the Science and Art of Teaching in the University of 
Michigan. The University of Wisconsin maintains a 
course of lectures in Didactics. The University of Iowa 
has maintained her normal department, with modifica- 
tions and improvements on the original plan, uninterrupt- 
edly since 1855. The University of Missouri established 
a normal professorship in 1856, and a normal college in 
1867." The colleges and universities, combined with state 
and city normal schools, and normal classes in connection 



16 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

witli liigli-scbools, could in twenty years supply the nation 
with a corps of trained and enthusiastic teachers. "With a 
body of professional teachers under the wise supervision 
of trained superintendents and inspectors, the common- 
schools would be well equipped to educate the people. 

Meanwhile, in many parts of our country still under 
rude social conditions, we must expect the statement to 
hold true that was made by Eoger Ascham, " scholemas- 
ter" to Queen Elizabeth; 

" And it is pity that commonly more care is had, yea, 
and that among very wise men, to find out rather a cun- 
ning man for their Horse than a cunning man for their 
Children. For to the one they will gladly give a Stipend 
of two hundred crowns by the year, and are loth to oifer 
to the other two hundred Shillings. God that sitteth in 
Heaven laugheth their choice to scorn, and rewardeth their 
Liberality as it should. For he suffereth them to have 
tame and well-ordered Horses, but wild and unfortunate 
Children ; and, therefore, in the end they find more Pleas- 
ure in their Horse than Comfort in their Children." 

VI. THE SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHERS. 

Before teaching can take rank as a profession, teachers 
must command respect for their scholarship. If they con- 
fine themselves to the schoolroom ; if they write nothing, 
say nothing, and do nothing — society will estimate them 
for value received. Teachers who would stand high in 
public opinion must read, study, think, observe, and take 
an active part in the affairs of society outside of school 
lessons. 

" The hardest thing to do in the world," says Emerson, 
^'is to think." But the true teacher must do more — he 



SCHOOLS AND SCIIOOL-TEACIimG. 17 

must take the step from thought to action. His work is 
done, not in the retirement of the closet, bnt in living 
contact v/ith other minds. The best teacher is not the one 
who has devoured the most books, bnt he who can best 
kindle young hearts into enthusiasm by a spark of electric 
fire from his own soul. " The first principle of human 
culture," says Carlyle, " the foundation of all but false, 
imaginary culture, is that men must, before every other 
thing, be able to do somewhat." 

Mere learning is often mistaken for scholarship, and a 
walking library for an electric battery of thought. " ISTo 
person can be called educated," says AVhipple, " until he 
has organized his knowledge into faculty, and can wield 
it as a weapon." 

The scholarship of the teacher ought to be liberal, em- 
bracing some knowledge of many things ; and any teacher 
can make his culture liberal if he uses rightly the leisure 
time which his pursuit affords. It is a good thing to be 
many-sided ; but the teacher must be a specialist in wdiat- 
ever relates directly to the science of education. He is 
judged by his success as a teacher^ not as a scientist, writer, 
lecturer, or poet. In his own profession, when he rises 
above his routine drudgery, he gets into the region of 
hard thinking. Climbing mountains is hard work, and 
the strain is hardest near the summit. The teacher who 
gets out of the sphere of imitation into that of invention 
and discovery will find ample scope for his powers. One 
reason why self-educated men so often succeed is, they 
concentrate their energies upon what they need to use. 
Like l^apoleon, they fight without tents or baggage. 
They acquire a concentrated force of character, that stamps 
its impress upon everything with which it comes in contact. 



18 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Above all things, the true teacher should avoid recast- 
ing everything in the mould of his own egotism. Deal- 
ing mostly with young and immature minds, he is in con- 
tinual danger of overestimating his own powers. Seldom 
questioned in his assertions, he is peculiarly liable to be- 
come dogmatic and opinionated. Everybody knows of 
pedantic pedagogues whose conceit is insufferable and in- 
effable. They look wiser than it is possible for any mor- 
tal to become. They gain credit, like Wouter Yan Twil- 
ler, for knowing a vast deal by saying nothing at all. 
The egotistical teacher reverses the old maxim "^IZZ men 
know more than one man" so that it reads ^''One man 
knows more than all men," he himself being that one man. 
But the true teacher w^ill not dream his life away, like a 
Hindoo god, in contemplating his own perfections. 

It is often said that teaching school belittles a man and 
sours a woman. It may be so ; it sometimes is so ; but 
not from any law of nature. It can never be true of any 
teacher made alive by keeping his intellectual and spirit- 
ual faculties and emotions in healthful play. " The orig- 
inal and proper sources of knowledge," says Blackie, " are 
not books, but life, experience, personal thinking, feeling, 
and acting." These sources are open to the teacher all 
his life. By imparting knowdedge he enriches himself, 
and the freshness of childhood becomes to him a fountain 
of youth. " All really superior teachers," says Mr. Phil- 
brick, " are every day growing better." " TJie teacher," 
says Mr. William Russell, '' is himself a j)rimary observer, 
authority, and reporter in the science of mind. His work 
is that of a living philosopher in actP 

Aside from the course of general reading which every 
teacher ought to pursue, there must be some regular study 



SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 11) 

of the science and art of teacliing. For general principles 
in education, let liim read the works of Herbert Spencer ; 
for rugged practical suggestions, Bain and Huxley ; for en- 
thusiasm, the life and works of Horace Mann. He should 
peruse all such good books on teaching as those of Russell, 
Page, Phelps, Hart, G. B. Emerson, Wickersham, and Or- 
cutt ; and also all the school reports he can get ; and all 
the educational journals he can afford to pay for. Let 
him critically examine all new text-books in the various 
branches of study ; he will glean some new method from 
each one. He ought to attend teachers' conventions, insti- 
tutes, and associations, and to take part in the proceedings. 
The original thinkers, the discoverers, and inventors may 
be few ; but the efficient workers are many, whose mission 
is to aid the progress of the race by earnest, skilful, intel- 
ligent teaching. '' Be ashamed to die," said Horace Mann, 
" until you have won some victory for humanity." 

VII. teachers' associations. 
It is no wonder that the solitary teacher in some rural 
district, surrounded by the protoplasm of humanity, his 
labors unappreciated, his motives misunderstood, his ser- 
vices half paid — it is no w^onder that he sometimes be- 
comes moody, loses his enthusiasm, and imagines that the 
sky is only a vast concave blackboard upon which he is 
doomed to work out the problem of a bare subsistence. 
He needs the pleasant intercourse of professional gather- 
ings to make the heavens brighten with the stars of hope 
and glow with the aurora of enthusiasm. As well expect 
a hermit on a desolate island to advance in civilization as 
to suppose that an isolated teacher can rise far above his 
surroundings. Association is the motive power of prog- 



20 METHODS OF TEACHINa. 

ress in civilization, science, and art. Tlie world's indus- 
trial expositions are dignifying mechanics and artisans. 
Farmers hold their state or district or connt}^ fairs for 
the purpose of improving their live-stock : they organize 
as " Grangers " to improve themselves socially and polit- 
ically. Printers, carpenters, machinists, and laborers, all 
have their societies and trades-unions for defence and of- 
fence. The lawyers, the doctors, the dentists, the clergy, 
the Masons, the Odd-fellows, all have their societies for 
charitable or protective purposes. 

If teachers would exert any marked influence, they 
must wield it through the consolidated power of organ- 
ized societies, associations, conventions, and institutes. 

VIII. EDUCATIONAL POWER. 

The true teacher must have the faith of martyrs. In 
the limited horizon of the schoolroom, he can dimly see 
only the beginning of the effects of his teaching upon his 
pupils. The solid results, the building-up of character, 
the creative power of motives, become evident only in 
the work of a lifetime in the wider circle of the world. 
Hence the power of the teacher, like that of the silent 
and invisible forces of nature, is only feebly realized. 

I once visited a quartz mine of fabulous richness. Deep 
in the bowels of the earth, rough miners were blasting out 
the gold-bearing rock ; above, the powerful mill was crush- 
ing the white quartz with its iron teeth. In the office, 
piles of yellow bars, ready to be sent to the mint to be 
poured into the channels of trade, showed the immediate 
returns of wisely invested capital and well-directed labor. 
An hour later, I stepped into a public school, not half a 
mile distaiit, where a hundred children were at work on 



SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL-TEACHING. 21 

tlieir lessons. What does the school yield, I asked, on the 
investment of money by the State? The returns of the 
mine are made monthly, in solid bullion ; the school re- 
turns will be made in the far future, and they cannot be 
expressed in dollars. 

I go out from my school daily into the crowded streets 
of a great commercial city. I hear everywhere the lium 
of industry, and see the stir of business. The results of 
business are solid and tangible; but when I go back to 
my classes, after witnessing the mighty play of industrial 
forces, it seems as if the teacher were only a looker-on in 
the bustling life around. But 'when I pause to consider 
that intelligence is the motive power of trade ; that the 
steamship is navigated by means of science, and is built 
as a triumph of art ; that science surveyed the converg- 
ing lines of railroads, and that skill runs the trains freight- 
ed with the products of industry and art, then I begin to 
perceive the connection between schools and the material 
results of civilization. I realize that the life of a nation 
is made up of the mothers that guard the homes, and the 
men who drive the plough, build the ships, run the mills, 
work the mines, construct the machinery, print the papers, 
shoulder the musket, cast the ballots ; and it is for all 
these that the public schools have done, and are now do- 
ing, their beneficent work. 

IX. THE COMMON-SCHOOL SYSTEM. 

" Whatever you would have appear in the life of a na- 
tion you must first put into the schools," holds true pre- 
eminently in a republic. Our free-school system has its 
shortcomings and its defects ; but, taken as a w^hole, it is 
the broadest and the best ever organized. It is the duty 



22 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

of every true teacher to strive to remedy its clcfeetSj and 
never to submit to them as incurable. When taxes are 
high and times are hard, the school system will be subject 
to a running fire of criticism all along the line ; but only 
timid and despairing souls are frightened into the belief 
that the foundations of society are breaking up on account 
of over-education in the common-schools. Neither repre- 
sentatives of the caste of Capital nor the caste of Cult- 
ure can convince the American people that vice, crime, 
idleness, povertj^, social discontent, are the legitimate re- 
sults of an elementary education among the workers of 
society, or that the schoolmaster is a public enemy. The 
sentiment of most Americans is that of Daniel Webster, 
who once said, "If I had as many sons as old Priam, I 
w^ould send them all to the public schools." If our schools 
fail to meet the needs of changing social conditions, the 
hind and quality, not the extent, of education must be 
changed. JN'either the free high-school nor the free state 
university must be lopped off. '' No system of education," 
says Huxley, " is worthy of the name unless it creates a 
great educational ladder w^itli one end in the gutter and 
the other in the university." 

It is only by means of skilled labor, wisely and intelli- 
gently directed, that a people can become or can remain 
permanently prosperous and happy ; it is only by means 
of intelligent and honest voters that law and liberty can 
be preserved and maintained ; and it is only by means of 
a still more complete education of all classes that human- 
ity can rise into a higher type of social evolution. There 
is no slavery so oppressive as that of ignorance. 



PHYSICAL TKAINING. 23 



Chapter II. 

PHYSICAL TRAINING. 

I. ITS IMPORTANCE. 

One of the most hopeful features of modern education 
is the growing recognition of the importance of physical 
training in school. By thinkers and educators the neces- 
sity of a trained body as the instrument of a trained mind 
is fully recognized, though by the mass of teachers it is, 
as yet, feebly acted upon. 

" To the wise educator," says "W. T. Harris, Superin- 
tendent of the schools of the city of St. Louis, " nothing is 
more certain than that the child is an animal with the pos- 
sibility of reason." " To be a nation of good animals," 
says Spencer, ^' is the first condition of national prosper- 
ity." " No perfect brain ever crowns an imperfectly de- 
veloped body," says Dr. E. II, Clarke, of Boston. That 
tough old sceptic Montaigne says, " We have not to train 
up a soul, nor yet a body, but a man, and w^e cannot di- 
vide him." "Phj^sical training and drill," says Huxley, 
"should be a part of the regular business of school. 
There is no real difficulty about teaching drill and the 
simpler kinds of gymnastics. If something of the kind 
is not done, the English physique, which has been, and 
still is, on the whole, a grand one, will become in the 
great tow^ns as extinct as the dodo." 

" When we have mastered the laws of phj^sical educa- 



24: METHODS OF TEACHING. 

tion," says Professor Youmans, " we have tlic essential 
data for dealing with questions of mental education, and 
those steps are the indisj^ensable preparation for an en- 
lightened moral education." It is true that the leading 
purpose of the public school is intellectual training, and 
true that physical condition depends largely upon home 
surroundings and inherited constitution. It may be true 
also that, considering education strictly as a science, phys- 
ical health does not fall w^ithin its domain, but is to be as- 
sumed as an essential prerequisite of education. Never- 
theless, though the teacher has no direct control over 
pupils in respect to diet, clothing, exercise, rest, sleep, 
w^ork, or play, yet the school must not, on that account, 
shirk its appropriate share of responsibility in relation to 
bodily development. As an abstract proposition, no teach- 
er will deny that sound health is the true basis of mental 
and moral culture ; the difficulty is how to secure it. 

There are certain negative duties which are evident and 
easy. Teachers should at least protect their pupils against 
impure air, too long confinement, over-work, and the dead- 
ening effects of mental w^orr}^, caused by severe competi- 
tive written examinations. A great deal more than this 
ought to be done; but in many schools not even this is 
attempted. 

It is the duty of every teacher, wdiether in the primary, 
grammar, or high school, whether in city or country, to 
impress upon pupils, by emphatic iteration, the laws of 
health in relation to food, air, sleep, rest, exercise, play, 
w^ork, and personal habits in general. Teachers should 
give attention to the encouragement of games, plaj^s, and 
amusements, in addition to calisthenic drill. 

" Play," says Froebel, ^' is the development of the human 



PHYSICAL TEAINING. 25 

mind, its first effort to make acquaintance with the out- 
ward world. The child, indeed, recognizes no purpose in 
it, sees not the end that is to be reached ; but it expresses 
its own nature, and that is human nature in its playful 
activity." 

In the German schools, children are systematically 
trained to gymnastics, and the result is a national taste 
for athletic sports. English schools are noted for foot- 
ball and cricket, and Englishmen are famous for pluck. 
But in our own country, we must confess there is some 
truth in the remark made by a foreigner, '^ that the only 
popular recreation of the American is business." 

Moreover, it is a first principle in the science of educa- 
tion that the best results in intellectual training can be se- 
cured only by a correlative physical development. Child- 
hood is the season of animal growth. Playfulness is as 
much an instinct of children as of kittens or puppies. 
Even in the icy winters of the Arctic regions. Dr. Kane 
found the hardy little Esquimaux boys playing ball on the 
frosty snow-fields. It is a mistaken notion of some peda- 
gogues that the chief end of children is to go to school 
and study lessons from books. It is painful to witness, in 
many schools, how the plastic, growing bodies are cramped, 
how natural impulses are repressed, how the laws of nature 
are systematically violated. Not many children, perhaps, 
are killed outright by mental high-pressure ; but, now and 
then, some delicately organized boy, brilliant and ambi- 
tious, whose vitality all tends to brain instead of body, 
drops out of school into the grave, and his death is attrib- 
uted to Providence instead of to schoolmasters. High- 
school diplomas, not a few, are gained at the expense of 
sound health, and girls, not a few, are annually made life- 

2 



26 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

long invalids by over-stimulated ambition, long lessons, 
short hours of sleep, and a lack of healthful amusements. 

Physicians know this, tliougli teachers and parents shut 
their eyes to the painful facts. ^N'ot all the girls in public 
schools or private seminaries have round shoulders, crook- 
ed spines, and dyspepsia ; but how much greater might be 
their physical stamina if physical training received a small 
share of the attention given to music and mathematics? 
If these girls need mental culture in order to make their 
future homes pleasant and attractive, do they not also need 
bodily culture to enable them to bear the burdens of do- 
mestic life ? In the struggle for existence, it is generally 
the strong, active, vigorous boys that come out ahead, and 
it is the healthy and beautiful girls that win the prizes of 
life. 

After admitting all this, it is often urged that systematic 
drill soon becomes irksome to children ; that boys dislike 
the gymnasium, and that girls find calisthenics weari- 
some ; that it is not natural for children to use wands and 
dumb-bells ; and that boys and girls should be left to fol- 
low their own inclinations and impulses about exercise and 
amusement. 

But school drill is designed not to supersede, but to 
supplement, the natural games and plays of children. If 
we leave physical culture wholly to natural impulse, why 
not leave mental culture to take care of itself ? In men- 
tal training, we recognize the princi^^le that intellectual 
development is attained only by repeated, long-continued, 
and systematic exercises. Mental school gymnastics are 
rigidly enforced for many years. The same law holds 
true in physical development ; yet children are too often 
crowded into small rooms, and cramped in hard seats^ 



niYSICAL TEAINING. 27 

tlieir muscles weak and relaxed, and their vital energies 
all concentrated on an overworked brain. 

Would not the physique of a class of boys under judi- 
cious gymnastic training for ten years be superior to that 
of a class left to run wild ? And would not their accumu- 
lated stock of trained muscular power be quite as service- 
able to them through life as a great deal of what is called 
mental discipline ? Business men, mechanics, artisans, 
and farmers know that success depends, not upon intel- 
lectual attainments so much as upon sound health and 
power of endurance. Sinewy frames as well as trained 
minds are essential to the sons of workingmen who must 
make their own way in the world. For them muscular 
power means food, clothing, and a living. Their only 
capital in the struggle for existence is an elementary edu- 
cation and a sound body. "Health is the first wealth," 
says Emerson. The plain truth is that no education is 
worth having at the expense of health and j)hysical vigor. 
" I am a poor man," said a friend to me, " because in a 
business crisis I was sick, and did the wrong thing; and I 
was sick because of neglected physical training at school." 

II. WAYS AND MEANS. 

Admitting the importance of physical training in school, 
how shall we set about it ? Doubtless, in some schools 
nothing whatever can be done. In city schools the need 
is more pressing than in country schools. After many 
years of experience in directing physical exercises, I am 
inclined to think that the possibility of doing something 
depends in a great measure on the interest, enthusiasm, 
and tact of the teacher. The pleasantest recollections of 
my earlier years of teaching are connected with gymnastic 



28 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

classes of active boys who could, with me, kick foot-ball, 
play base-ball, lift dumb-bells, swing clubs, climb ladders, 
vault bars, walk twenty miles on Saturday, and roast a 
beefsteak on a pointed stick over an improvised camp-fire. 
As I meet those boys, now grown up into rugged man- 
hood, I know by the way they grip my hand and speak of 
the " splendid times we used to have," that they think of 
me, not as a mere schoolmaster, but as the friend who 
shared their sports and entered into the spirit of their 
boyhood. 

My later experience in a girls' high -school, number- 
ing eight hundred pupils, has convinced me of the very 
great value for girls of systematic calisthenic drill. In 
his Boston report so long ago as 1860, Superintendent 
Philbrick said, " The principal remedy which I would sug- 
gest is the introduction into all grades of our schools of a 
thorough system of physical training as a part of school 
culture." " Gymnastic exercises," says Secretary Dickin- 
son, "give grace and beauty to the body, and good train- 
ing to the mind." 

III. PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS. 

In every school, whether in city or country, there should 
be given a daily drill of five or ten minutes in free gym- 
nastics. "Without apparatus and without music, a skilful 
teacher can secure very good results from what may be 
termed " free-arm movements," executed by counting in 
time. To these there may be added " breathing exercises," 
and concert exercises in vocal culture or in singing. 

Both wands and dumb-bells can be used in any school- 
room. Wands will cost about ten cents apiece, and light 
wooden dumb-bells about twenty-five cents a pair. If 



PHYSICAL TRAINING. 29 

there is a piano in the schooh'oom, the light gymnastic 
drill can be made quite varied and thorough with no other 
appliances. If there is a hall, wooden rings should be 
added for girls. 

For the larger boys, there should be some inexpensive 
gymnastic appliances in the yard. A movable horizontal 
bar, a circular swing, hanging rings, parallel bars, iron 
dumb-bells, and Indian clubs can all be obtained for a 
small expenditure. 

Any young lady, even if not previously trained in calis- 
thenics, ought to be able to lead a class after a few weeks' 
study of any one of several good manuals on the subject. 
Any man, unless superannuated, ought to be able to lead, 
or at least direct^ gymnastic exercises in the yard, at re- 
cess, intermission, or after school. 

The man who understands boys will either join with 
them or will encourage and direct them in their games of 
ball and foot-ball ; in skating, coasting, and snow-balling ; 
and will take an interest in their games of marbles, in 
kite-flying, and top-spinning. On pleasant Saturdays, or 
after school in the long summer days, he will head excur- 
sion parties to the fields, woods, or hills after collections 
for the cabinet, or to see nature, or merely to have a good 
time. 

The woman who understands little children will invite 
them to pleasant w^ilks with her for the same purpose. 
The games of the primary children must not be forgotten. 
By a little attention to the playground, their sports may 
be regulated and made delightful. Marbles, tops, kites, 
balls, and hoops are all a part of educational apparatus. 

A visit to a kindergarten and a careful study of some 
kindergarten manual will be very suggestive in the direc- 



30 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

tion of play and amusements. Teachers must study vari- 
ety, for monotonous repetition soon becomes distasteful. 
Notice liow marbles succeed tops, and kites follow ball, 
and one play another, as often as the moon changes. 

The cold, formal, precise, unsympathetic teacher should 
never set foot on the playground. An owl frightens sing- 
ing birds. The only teachers who succeed well in direct- 
ing children in calisthenics, gymnastics, or games are those 
who can enter into the spirit of girlhood and boyhood. 
" He was always a boy, and he will die one," was the re- 
mark I once heard made about one of the best teachers I 
ever knew. 

The indirect lessons of the playground are often more 
valuable and more lasting tlian the formal teachings of 
the class-room. For in the hours of play, wdien off duty, 
the teacher can best win the confidence and love of chil- 
dren. What man or Avoman would not be remembered 
by pupils as a sharer of their amusements, a director of 
their games, a sympathizer with their impulses, rather 
than as nothing but an expounder of text-books and a 
taskmaster of lessons? It is on the playground, too, that 
boys get their first lessons in social life outside of the 
family circle. 

"You send a boy to the schoolmaster," says Emerson, 
" but it is the schoolboys who educate him. lie hates the 
grammar and Grachis^ and loves guns, fishing-rods, horses, 
and boats. AYell, the boy is right, and you are not fit to 
direct his bringing up if your theory leaves out his gym- 
nastic training. Provided always the boy is teachable, 
foot-ball, cricket, climbing, fencing, riding, archery, swim- 
ming, skating, are lessons in the art of power which it is 
his main business to learn." •'Moreover," says Charles 



PnYSICAL TKAINING. 31 

Kingsley, " they know well that games conduce, not mere- 
ly to physical, but to moral health ; that in the playing- 
field boys acquire virtues that no books can give them; 
not merely daring and endurance, but, better still, temper, 
self-restraint, fairness, honor, unenvious approbation of 
another's success, and all that ' give and take' pf life which 
stands a man in such good stead when he goes forth into 
the world ; and without wdiich, indeed, his success is al- 
w^ays maimed and partial." 

IV. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING. 

And, in connection with physical training, there is the 
question of industrial or technical education in the great 
cities. In the country, boys w^ork on the farm half the 
year, and girls work in the house all the 3^ear through. 
The country pupils combine mental and physical work, 
and are the better for it. 

Children are not content with reading and thinking; 
they burn to be doing something. The kindergarten sup- 
plies this want with the little children ; but from the age 
of six to fifteen there is at present, in the city public 
school, little for boys but books. There is no doubt 
whatever that many boys get a distaste for school, and 
leave it as soon as they can find any work to do, and be- 
fore they have obtained any education beyond the ability 
to read, write, and cipher a little. IIow the combination 
of head-work with hand-work can be effected, if at all, is 
one of the educational problems of the future. It is not 
safe to assert that it cannot be done. On this subject, 
John Hancock, of Ohio, speaks as follows : 

" But to impart in the schools of our cities and large 
towns all this general knowledge and training without the 



32 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

slightest abatement, and to add, not the knowledge of a 
trade, but such a knowledge of the uses of tools and ma- 
terials as shall enable the scholar readily to adjust himself 
to several trades, seems to be something worth striving for. 
That this can be done, and without greatly lengthening 
the period of school life or enormously increasing school 
expenses, has been pretty well established by the experi- 
ments made within the last two or three years at the Bos- 
ton School of Technology. Indications arc strong that 
the education of the brain and of the hand are, at no dis- 
tant day, to run on side by side, mutually strengthening 
each other in the race. To unite a thinking brain with a 
skilful hand is the way to make labor respectable, and any 
other way than this there is not under the sun." 

*' Froebel did not value manual work for the sake mere- 
ly of making a better workman," says Emily Shirreff, '' but 
for the sake of making a more complete human being. 
Ilis teaching rested upon the principle that the starting- 
point of all we see, know, are conscious of, is action, and, 
tlierefore, that education must begin in action. Book- 
study, in his system, is postponed to the discipline of the 
mental and physical powers through observation and 
work." 

v. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 

As yet, technical education can hardly be said to form 
a part of our common-school system, except in one state, 
and in some cities where a beginning has been made in the 
evening schools. I dismiss this part of the subject by giv- 
ing a few quotations to show the drift of opinion among 
prominent educators : 

" Tecliuical education, in the sense in which the term is ordina- 
rily used, means that sort of education which is specially adapted 



PHYSICAL TRAINING. 33 

to the needs of men whose business in life it is to pursue some kind 
of handicraft. . . . Moreover, those who have to live by labor must 
be shaped to labor early. The colt that is left at grass too long 
makes but a sorry draught-horse. Perhaps the most valuable result 
of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you 
have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not : it 
is the first lesson that ought to be learned ; and, however early a 
man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns 
thoroughly. ' ' — Huxley. 

" A knowledge of some form of industrial labor is as necessary as 
a knowledge of books, and the state which acknowledges its ob- 
ligation to teach children to read cannot logically deny its obliga- 
tion to teach them to work. ... Do I think it possible to attach 
workshops to all our public schools ? Certainly not. But I do think 
it possible to have public workshops where boys can learn trades, as 
well as public schools where they can learn letters. And just as we 
transfer the few from the state school to the state college, where 
they learn to be thinkers, I would transfer the many from the city 
school to the city workshop, where they would learn to be work- 
ers." — Superintendent Newell, of Maryland. 

" I hold it to be a correct principle that, while the common-school 
does not aim to make farmers or mechanics, but leaves this to the 
special schools, it is the business of the common-schools to teach the 
elements of technical knowledge, both scientific and artistic." — Su- 
perintendent Carr, of California. 

" I have given what I believe a good reason for the assumj^tion 
that the keeping at school of boys who are to be handicraftsmen 
beyond the age of thirteen or fourteen is neither practicable nor desir- 
able; and it is quite certain that, with justice to other and no less 
important branches of education, nothing more than the rudiments 
of science and art-teaching can be introduced into elementary schools ; 
and we must seek elsewhere for a supplementary training in these 
subjects, which may go on after the workman's life has begun. . . . 
The great advantage of evening technical classes is that they bring 
the means of instruction to tlie doors of the factories and work- 
shops. " — Huxley. 

2* 



34 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



VI. SCHOOL HYGIENE. 

1. "The laws of health," sajs Dr. Willard Parker, "are 
the laws of God, and are as binding as the Decalogue." 
" The fact is," says Spencer, " that all breaches of the laws 
of health are physical sins." " Nature's discipline," says 
Huxley, "is not even a word and a blow, and the blow 
first ; but the blow without the word. It is left for you 
to find out why your ears are boxed." 

2. 'No education is worth the cost if gained at the ex- 
pense of health and cheerfulness, or under the penalty of 
nervous w'eaknesses, dyspejDsia, or near-sightedness. 

3. A sound body is the groundwork of sound intellect- 
ual faculties. A morbid condition of body leads to dul- 
ness of mental perceptions and weakness of the intellectual 
faculties. Excessive or premature mental development 
checks the growth of the body ; over-development is an- 
tagonistic to growth. 

4. " The physiological motto is," says Dr. E. II. Clarke, 
"Educate a man for manhood, a woman for womanhood, 
both for humanity. In this lies the hope of the race." 
" Get health," says Emerson, " for sickness is a cannibal 
which eats up all the life and youth it can lay hold of, 
and absorbs its own sons and daughters." 

6. " Mental labor, rightly directed," says Dr. Lincoln, of 
Boston, " is a most healthful occupation ; and there is no 
real reason why this should not be true at all periods of 
school life. But the difference between /bre^c? and sj)o?i- 
taneous action is of great consequence to the health and 
mental energy of the child." 

6. "At college," says Horace Mann, "I was taught the 
motions of the heavenly bodies as if their keeping in their 



PHYSICAL TEAINING. 35 

orbits depended upon my knowing them ; wliile I was in 
profound ignorance of the laws of health of my own body. 
The rest of my life was, in consequence, one long battle 
with exhausted energies." 

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS. 

1. Children under ten years of age ought to have no les- 
sons whatever assigned for home study. Whatever time 
they can spare from play ought to be sj)ent in reading 
suitable library books. Boys and girls from ten to twelve 
years of age ought not to have more than one lesson for 
home study. And girls from fourteen to sixteen years 
of age, in high-schools, ought not to study more than one 
hour a day out of school. From ten to sixteen is the 
golden period for the reading of good books; and any 
course of school-work that deprives pupils of time to read 
by keeping them all the time at the drudgery of text- 
book lessons is a mental wrong and a physical sin. 

2. Do not exhaust the vitality of weak, nervous, brill- 
iant, ambitious children by too rapid promotion. Put on 
the brakes, even if 3^ou have to oppose ambitious and igno- 
rant parents. Of what use is it to let them gain a year 
in school and lose a lifetime ? 

3. If possible, keep your schoolroom well ventilated ; 
but do not run to the foolish extreme of subjecting your 
pupils to strong draughts of cold or damp air from open 
windows. In winter, regulate the temperature by a ther- 
mometer. 

4. Do not allow children to sit in school with wet feet 
or damp clothing. Let them get warm and dry around 
the stove before you begin work. 

5. When children suffer from headaches, send them 



36 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

home. They cannot tJiinh well, and the attempt to study 
leads to bad mental habits. 

6. In pleasant weather, compel girls as well as boys to 
go out of doors to play at recesses and intermissions ; and 
do not allow them to take their books with them for the 
purpose of studying when they ought to play. 

7. By means of window-shades, carefully attended to 
during the day, protect the eyes of your pupils from ex- 
cessive light, and from the direct rays of the sun. Cau- 
tion your pupils against habits of holding books in ways 
that lead to near-sightedness. 

8. Require your pupils to sit erect and to stand erect, 
and explain to them the reason why you do so. 

9. Explain lohy loose clotliing is healthful, and tight 
clothing is harmful. 

10. Tell pupils what articles of diet are, in general, 
wholesome ; what, in general, are unwholesome. 

11. Teach them that it is better to2^^<2ve?it sickness by 
attention to the laws of health than to be continually 
dosing themselves with medicines. 

12. Teach them the importance of preserving their teeth 
and of chewing their food. 

13. Charge them not to sit np late at night to study. 
The more active the mind, the greater the need of sleep. 
From the age of twelve to eighteen, boys and girls need 
from eight to ten hours of unbroken sleep every night. 

14. Impress upon them the fact that they must take 
care of their bodies, or suffer the penalty of neglect in the 
form of sickness ; that suffering is sure to follow trans- 
gression ; and that nature remits no punishments. 

15. If you are teaching in a girls' school, read Clarke's 
Sex in Education^ Clarke's Building of a Brain, Miss 



PHYSICAL TKAINING. 37 

Studley's What Girls Ought to Know, and Miss Brack- 
ett's Education of American Girls. 

VII. RULES OF HEALTH FOR PUPILS. 

Note. — The following rules are given as a model for additional 
ones. The teacher can make each direction the topic for a short 
lesson by giving the reasons for it. 

1. Ketire early, and sleep from eight to ten Lours every 
night. The harder you study, the more sleep you need. 

2. Exercise in the open air and sunshine is second in 
importance only to sleep. 

3. Yentilate your sleeping-room at night cither by an 
open door, or a window slightly open both at top and bot- 
tom. 

4. Avoid hot cakes, hot bread, strong tea, and strong 
coffee. In hot weather, avoid fat meats. Avoid eatins* 
between meals, and especially beware of lunches just be- 
fore going to bed. If you want a clear head for good 
mental work, take light breakfasts. Do not study imme- 
diately after a hearty meal. If possible, avoid studying 
before breakfast. 

6. Take care of your teeth; you need them both for 
ornament and use. 

6. Wear loose clothing, and loose-fitting boots and shoes. 

7. Keep the feet w^arm and dry, and you will avoid a 
great many colds and headaches. In cold or wet weather 
wear thick boots and shoes. 

8. Keep the whole body clean by bathing according to 
season and climate. 

9. Do not study out of school more than from one to 
two hours. '^0 education is worth getting at the expense 
of health. 



3S METHODS OF TEACHING. 

10. Take care of your eyes. When tliey ache, stop 
reading or writing at once. Any abuse of the eyes is sure 
to be followed by a severe penalt}^ in later life. 

11. Avoid cross lights. If possible, sit so that the light 
■^'"^hall fall over your left shoulder. 

12. Never sit in scliool with a ray of sunshine streaming 
into your face or upon your desk. Ask your teacher to 
lower the shade, or to allow you to change your seat. 

13. When you read, sit erect, and hold your book iip^ 
not flat upon the desk. 

14. Avoid books in flne print. Do not read at twilight, 
nor before breakfast by lamj^light or gaslight. 

15. Unless you wish to ruin your eyes, never read in 
bed. 

16. !N'ever study later than nine o'clock at night. Mil- 
ton, when young, used to sit up till midnight; result, 
blindness in old age. 

17. For weak eyes, an extra hour's sleep every night is 
the best remedy. 

18. Pain in the eyes is often caused by a disordered 
stomach. Be careful about your diet. 

19. If you wish to avoid being near-sighted, hold your 
book at a reasonable distance from your eyes* when read- 
ing. 

20. Do not wear colored glasses, except by the advice 
of a physician. 



MORAL TKAINING. 39 



ChAPTEPw III. 
MORAL TRAINING. 

I. GENERAL REMARKS. _ 

Intellectual development is the most prominent ob- 
ject of common-school instruction ; but moral training is 
not less important, though its results are not so immediate 
and tangible. " Tlie vital part of human culture," saj's 
Russell, " is not that which makes man what he is intel- 
lectually ; but that which makes him what he is in heart, 
life, and character." 

" That education," says President Chadbourne. of Will- 
iams College, " which does not make prominent justice as 
well as benevolence, law as well as liberty, honesty as well 
as thrift, and purity of life as well as enjoyment should 
be stamped, by every true educator, as a waste and a curse ; 
for so it will prove in the end." 

" The common-school," says Eev. A. D. Mayo, " is the 
place, of all others, to inculcate the great industrial, social, 
and civic virtues of honesty, chastity, truthfulness, justice, 
responsibility for social order ; all the moral safeguards of 
national life." 

"What we term moral culture, which concerns the feel- 
ings, the emotions, the will, the conscience, must always 
be, to some extent, the result of the teacher's indirect tui- 
tion of manner, character, and example. Lessons in arith- 
metic, grammar, and geography may be given by formal 



40 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

methods, or may be learned from text-books; but good 
moral training is of a higher and more complex character. 
" Creeds pasted upon the memory," says Spencer, '' good 
principles learned by rote, lessons in right and wrong, will 
not eradicate vicious propensities, though people, in spite 
of their experience as parents and as citizens, persist in 
hoping they will." " The difficulties of moral teaching," 
says Bain, '' exceed in every way the difficulties of intel- 
lectual teaching." In the child's moral nature, symjpaiky 
is the ruling impulse, and influence the controlling power. 
The teacher must be a trusted and affectionate guide, not 
a bundle of philosophical ethics. 

It is true the child's moral tendencies are largely the re- 
sult of home influences or of hereditary transmission ; 
nevertheless, the school cannot shirk its appropriate share 
of responsibility. 

II. THE SPHERE OF SCHOOL. 

Unfavorable home influences must be counteracted as 
far as possible at school, and the moral faculties must be 
called into daily exercise until habits of right-thinking- 
result in habits of right-doing. The strict discipline of 
school is in itself a powerful means of moral culture. 
Pupils are trained to habits of order, regularity, punctual- 
ity, industry, truthfulness, obedience, regard for the rights 
of others, and a general sense of justice. The influence 
of school, continued for a series of years, in these respects, 
is very powerful in the formation of habit and character. 

But beyond these incidental and indirect results, what 
is it possible to accomplish in the way of moral develop- 
ment? In the past, moral training was very generally 
confounded with religious instruction ; and some still hold 



MOEAL TKAINING. 41 

tliat there can be no moral culture not based on specific 
religious instruction or sectarian faith. In our public 
schools, purely secular instruction is the rule, both by law 
and custom ; religious exercises the exception. For the 
purpose of practical consideration, then, we may remand 
religious teaching to the home, the Sunday-school, and the 
Church. 

The reading of the Bible, still required in some schools 
as a formal morning exercise, may or may not be an aid 
in moral training, according to the manner and spirit in 
which the exercise is conducted. The same holds true of 
morning or evening school prayers. Unless marked by 
earnestness on the part of the teacher, and attentive rev- 
erence by pupils, it is better to omit them. With regard 
to such devotional exercises, considered by many to be on 
the border-line of religious instruction, teachers must be 
guided by local custom and regulations ; but they should 
bear in mind that there is a growing tendency to make 
the public schools purely secular; that the present is an 
age of the broadest personal liberty in respect to religious 
belief; and that they must manifest in school a tolerant 
regard for the conscientious scruples as well as the legal 
rights of both Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, 
Liberal and Churchman. 

^' It is not merely by hearing the Bible read," says Pro- 
fessor George W. Minns, " or by learning Bible lessons or 
theological dogmas, or by any forms or ceremonies, that 
the religious spirit cometh. All these, at their best, are 
only means to an end; they are not the end itself, and 
they often defeat it. Motives are the springs of all actions. 
We judge of a man's conduct by his motives ; the spirit 
with which a man works, the motives which prompt his con- 



42 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

duct — these show and constitute the man, and these are 
moral qualities springing from and dwelling in the heart." 

Professor Bain, in his late w^ork, Eduadion as a Sci- 
ence, thus clearly draws the following dividing line : 

" Morality is not religion, and religion is not morality ; 
and yet the two have points of coincidence. Morality 
cannot be the same thing without religion as with it ; re- 
ligion, working in its own sphere, does not make full pro- 
vision for all the moral exigencies of human life. The 
precepts of morality must be chiefly grounded on our hu- 
man relations in this world as known by practical experi- 
ence ; the motives, too, grow very largely out of those re- 
lations. Religion has precepts of its own, and these are all 
the more effectively worked when worked in separation." 

"I wish to be distinctly understood," says W. T. Harris, 
"as claiming only that public-school education is moral, 
and completely so, on its own basis ; that it lays the basis 
for religion, hut is no siibstitute for religion. It is not a 
substitute for the State because it teaches justice ; it only 
prepares an indispensable culture for the citizen of the 
State. The State must exist ; religion must exist, and 
complement the structure of human culture begun in 
moral education." 

III. POSSIBILITIES AND CONDITIONS. 

Leaving out of consideration all religious forms and 
observances in school, what is it possible to accomplish in 
the way of moral training f There are some who think 
nothing can be done if distinctive religious instruction is 
omitted, and that moral training must necessarily be dis- 
regarded ; but this, in the words of Huxley, " is burning 
the ship to get rid of the cockroaches." 



MOEAL TRAINING. 43 

If moral training consisted merely in telling children 
what is right and what is wrong, and in dealing out ethi- 
cal maxims and proverbs ; if it were enough to tell chil- 
dren it is wicked to lie, steal, or swear; if it would make 
boys truthful and honest to learn commandments by rote 
— then the teacher's task would be an easy one. ''Did 
you ever give a lesson on honesty ?" asked Horace Mann 
of a teacher in England. " Oh no," was the ready reply, 
"that isn't necessary; they have the commandment in 
the catechism, you know." 

But the fact that true moral development depends on 
complex conditions is no reason why the whole matter 
should be practically ignored, as seems to be the case in 
some schools. 

Moral development depends partly on the clearness of 
the intellectual faculties, and partly upon physical condi- 
tions; partly on hereditary traits, and partly on education- 
al bias. It is influenced by the pupil's associates, home 
discipline, by school government, and by religious instruc- 
tion in the family, the Church, and the Sunday-school. 

There can be no sound moral character not based upon 
a sound understanding capable of forming correct judg- 
ments upon thoughts and acts. Emotions, appetites, pas- 
sions, and will must be under the control of intelligent 
mental perceptions. Sound health is an important factor. 
"Every man is a rascal as soon as he is sick," says Dr. 
Johnson. As the child should be made to feel, in physical 
training, that every violation of the laws of health is vis- 
ited by swift and inevitable punishment, so in moral train- 
ing the central idea should be to make the child realize 
the natural penalty upon himself of every violation of the 
law of right. 



44 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

" The tendency of each new generation," says Spencer, 
" to develop itself wrongly indicates the degree of modi- 
fication that has yet to take place. Those respects in 
which a child reqnires restraint are just the respects in 
which he is taking after the aboriginal man. The selfish 
squabbles of the nursery, the persecutions of the play- 
ground, the lyings and petty thefts, the rough treatment 
of inferior creatures, the propensity to destroy — all these 
imply that tendency to pursue self-gratification at the ex- 
pense of other beings which qualified man for the wilder- 
ness, and which disqualifies him for civilized life." 

IV. GENERAL DIRECTIONS FROM HERBERT SPENCER. 

1. " There are in all children tendencies to good feel- 
ings and actions, and also tendencies and impulses to 
wrong-doing. These tendencies, whether good or bad, 
are the result of hereditary transmission and of surround- 
ing circumstances." 

2. " Do not expect from children any great amount of 
moral goodness." 

3. "Do not attempt to force young children into pre- 
cocious moral goodness. Be content witli moderate meas- 
ures and moderate results." 

4. " Bear in mind the fact that a higher morality, like 
a higher intelligence, must be reached by a slow growth." 

5. " Leave children, whenever you can, to the discipline 
of experience." 

6. "Be sparing of commands; but whenever you do 
command, command with decision and firmness." 

7. "Let your penalties be like the penalties inflicted by 
i nan imate n ature — inevitahleP 

8. " The aim of your discipline should be to produce a 



MOKAL TRAINING. 45 

self-governing being, not to produce a being to be govern- 
ed by others." 

9. "Do not regret the exhibition of considerable self- 
will on the part of children. The independent boy is the 
father of the independent man." 

10. " Always remember that to educate rightly is not a 
simple and easy thing; but a complex and extremely 
difficult thing, the hardest task that devolves upon adult 
life." 

V. PRACTICAL HINTS. 

Methods of conducting moral lessons in school must be 
gathered up by experience and observation. They cannot 
be stated like rules of syntax or mathematical demonstra- 
tions. A warm heart, a genial nature, an even temper, a 
beaming eye, a cheerful countenance, a sincere voice, an 
earnest manner — these are the potential agencies by which 
you can win, direct, and control your pupils. 

1. The Emotions. — Keep fresh in mind your own feel- 
ings, passions, emotions, impulses, sympathies, and experi- 
ences when a child, and you will avoid the grievous mis- 
take of applying to school children the moral philosophy 
suited only to adult metaphysicians. "Put yourself in 
the place of your pupils" is a good motto. "We might 
as well expect children," says Eousseau, " to be ten feet 
high as to have judgment in their tenth year." " Young 
children," says Pestalozzi, " cannot be governed by appeals 
to conscience, because it is not yet developed. Sympathy 
must be gradually superseded by the rule of right, and 
children must be led from good feelings to right princi- 
ples." 

The opinions of children are influenced, not so much by 
reason as by emotion — their likes and dislikes. "The 



4G METHODS OF TEACHING. 

education of the cliild," says Bishop Jebb, " is principally 
derived from its own observation of the actions, the words, 
the voice, the looks, of those with whom it lives." 

"What children see constantly done by those whom 
they respect and love," says the famous German educator 
ISTiemeyer, " they very soon come to think is what ought 
to be done. Thus it is that the manners and morals of 
nations, as well as of smaller societies and of families, are 
perpetuated." 

" Whatever moral benefit can be effected by education," 
says Herbert Spencer, " must be effected by an education 
that is emotional rather than perceptive. If, in place of 
making a child ^mderstand that this thing is rkjlit and 
the other wroiuj^ you make it feel that they are so ; if 
you make virtue loved and vice loathed ; if you arouse 
a noble desire and make torpid an inferior one; if you 
bring into life a previously dormant sentiment; if you 
cause a sympathetic im/pulse to get the better of one that 
is selfish ; if, in short, you produce a state of mind to 
which proper behavior is natural, spontaneous, instinctive 
— ^^you do some good. But no drilling in catechisms, no 
teaching of moral codes, can effect this. Mere ideas re- 
ceived by the intellect, meeting no response from within, 
are quite inoperative npon conduct, and are qnickly for- 
gotten upon entering into life." 

2. Doing. — Children must not only be taught what is 
right, they must also be made to do what is right. The 
school is a miniature world. In one way or another it 
aflords opportunities for the practice of most of the moral 
virtues. Strict discipline trains pupils to habits of obedi- 
ence and order, corrects bad habits, and compels the law- 
less to respect the rights of others. It is possible for the 



MOEAL TRAINING. 47 

teaclier to breathe into a scliool a spirit of honor, truthful- 
ness, and honesty that shall control every new scholar that 
comes under its influence. This spirit will put down pro- 
fanity, vulgarity, slang, slander, tattling, lying, and mean- 
ness generally. 

" Character is formed," says Dunning, •' by training 
rather than by teaching. A teacher cannot lecture a 
child into good manners, nor change habits of any kind 
by the longest speech. Habits are changed only by a rep- 
etition of doings, and it is in these doings that training 
consists." 

3. Specific To])ics. — It is a good plan to have a regu- 
lar time, as Monday morning or Friday afternoon, for 
a lesson on some topic, such as honor, honesty, truthful- 
ness, etc., given out to pupils a week in advance, for 
them to think about. The subject taken up may be 
discussed and illustrated by anecdotes, incidents, stories, 
fables, poetry, or historical facts. Gow's Morals and 
Manners and Cowdery's Moral Lessons will aid the 
teacher in giving such lessons. But such lessons must 
be conducted with great skill, in order to be produc- 
tive of good results. Bain, in his Education as a Sci- 
ence, says, 

" For boys and girls above twelve, we may, as a rule, 
pronounce that moral lecturing, except in actual discipline, 
is misplaced ; and only a very roundabout approach to 
the subject can be borne. In the higher schools and uni- 
versities, direct moral teaching is, by common consent, 
disused as part of the ordinary class-work." 

4. Stories. — One of the most effective ways of giving 
moral lessons is throuo:h the medium of ^vell - selected 
stories. "A moral lesson," says Bain, "may be wrapped 



48 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

lip in a tale and brought home with an impetus. Stories 
of great and noble deeds have fired more youthful hearts 
with enthusiasm than sermons have." " To hear about 
good men," says Eichter, " is equivalent to living among 
them. For children, there is absolutely no other morality 
than example, either seen or narrated." When you read 
a story or fable, let your pupils draw their own inferences 
and do their own moralizing. It is not best for you to 
spoil the effect by drawing conclusions. 

Every teacher should keep a scrap-book for storing up 
material gleaned from the newspapers for these lessons. 
Miss Alcott's Stories are good hand-books for the teacher's 
desk. If there is a school library, make good use of it by 
calling the S2:>ecial attention of pupils to the biographies 
and story-books that you think fitted to become your as- 
sistants in morals and manners. Tyndall says he was made 
a scientist by reading Emerson and Carlyle. The golden 
grains of thought gleaned from good books will spring 
up in the youthful mind and yield a rich harvest of no- 
ble sympathies and right emotions. "Let a child read 
and understand," says Horace Mann, "such stories as the 
friendship of Damon and Pythias, the integrity of Aris- 
tides, the fidelity of Regnlus, the purity of Washington, 
the invincible perseverance of Franklin, and he will think 
differently and act differently all the days of his remain- 
ing life." " A large part of the tactics of the teacher," 
says Bain, "is determined by tlie natural repugnance of 
human nature to the whole subject. Pupils would much 
rather be instructed in knowledge than be lectured on vir- 
tue ; while, as regards knowledge, want of liking is not so 
fatal to the end. The use of the fable, the parable, the 
example, is evidently meant to avoid direct lecturing, 



MOKAL TRAINING. 49 

and to reach the mind by insinuation and circumven- 
tion." 

In urging this point upon the attention, Professor 
Minns remarks, '' The lives of men deserving the name 
of great and good ; every instance of self-sacrifice in the 
cause of justice, truth, country, or humanity ; every noble 
utterance of poet or preacher or orator; everything in 
nature and art that appeals to our best and highest feel- 
ings and ' touches the heart to finer issues ;' every act of 
kindness, of charity, of sympathy — will feed the soul with 
pure and generous and lofty thoughts, will lift it into' a 
serener and diviner air, will place Deity upon his lawful 
throne, will broaden and deepen the sentiment of love to 
God and man until it shall come to be a well-spring of 
everlasting joy in the heart, and will bring nearer the 
day when all mankind shall become brothers — the chil- 
dren of one Heavenly Father." 

5. Time and Place. — Advise, correct, and discipline at 
the right time and in the right way. The events of a 
school-week will often furnish practical illustrations for a 
short but effective talk to the pupils on manners or mor- 
als. Omit no fitting occasion to impress a principle upon 
the moral feelings. Whether an offender is to be reproved 
publicly or in private, you must determine. " A few words 
of earnest advice or remonstrance," says Quick, " w^hicli a 
boy hears at the right time from a man whom he respects 
may affect that boy's character for life. Here everj^thing 
depends, not on the words used, but on the feeling with 
which they are spoken, and on the way in which the 
speaker is regarded by the hearer." 

" Do but gain a boy's trust," says Spencer ; '' convince 
him by your behavior that yon have his happiness at 

3 



50 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

heart ; let him discover that you are the wiser of the two ; 
let him experience the benefits of following your advice, 
and the evils that arise from disregarding it; and fear 
not ; you will readily enough guide him. Not by author- 
ity is your sway to be obtained ; neither by reasoning ; 
but by inducement.'''' 

Joshua Bates, Master of the Brimmer School, Boston, 
for thirty-three years, remarked, at the close of his school- 
teaching, 

" There is no part of my professional career that I look 
back upon with more pleasure and satisfaction than the 
practice I always pursued in giving, each Saturday morn- 
ing, familiar talks on such subjects as would conduce to 
make my pupils happier and better men. I have been 
more fully assured of the benefit resulting to many of 
my pupils from letters received, and conversations I have 
had with past members of the school, who uniformly 
write or say, ' Much of what I studied in school is forgot- 
ten ; but the words then spoken are treasured and remem- 
bered, and they have influenced, and ever will influence, 
me while life lasts.' " 

The true teacher will keep steadily in mind the fact 
that character outweighs mere intellect ; that high percent- 
ages in examinations are but as dust in the balance com- 
pared with the moral qualities that constitute manhood 
and womanhood. Prince Albert, when drawing up the 
conditions of the annual prize to be given by the Queen 
at Wellington College, determined that it should be award- 
ed, not to the cleverest boy, nor to the most bookish boy, 
nor to the most precise, diligent, and prudent boy ; but to 
the noblest boy — to the boy who should show the most 
promise of becoming a large-hearted, high-minded man. 



MOPwAL TKAINING. 51 

Character ought to rank in school, as in society, above all 
attainments of the intellect or accomplishments of art. A 
just, upright, truthful, pure, and magnanimous character, 
guided by principle and inspired by good-will to all, is 
worth all the learning in the world. 

6. Boohs and Heading. — If there is no school library, 
advise your pupils what books to draw from the public 
libraries, if they have access to any; and, if not, what 
books to buy for themselves when they have any money 
to buy with. See to it that they do not poison them- 
selves with sensational and trashy stories and novels, the 
blood-and-thunder tales of which too many boys are fond, 
and the sentimental love-stories devoured by too many 
girls. 

7. The Maiii Thing. — There are no keener critics upon 
sham character and moral pretence than children. " The 
divine method of moral instruction in a common-school," 
says Mayo, " is that a cultivated and consecrated man or 
woman should rise upon it at nine o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and lead it through light and shadow, breeze and 
calm, tempest and trancpiillity, to the end. All special 
methods flow out of him, as the hours of the day mark 
the course of the sun through the vault of heaven." 

The moral power of the teacher will be measured large- 
ly by liis own reserved forces of character and life, and 
this central idea has been so fully and eloquently set forth 
by Eev. F. D. Huntington, in his classic paper on Uncon- 
scious Tuition^ that I conclude this chapter in his words : 

"My main propositions are these three: 1st. That there 
is an educating powder issuing from the teacher, not by 
voice nor by immediate design, but silent and involuntary, 
as indispensable to his true function as any element in it. 



52 METnODS OF TEACHING. 

2d. That this unconscious tuition is jet no product of ca- 
price, nor of accident, but takes its quality from the un- 
dermost substance of the teacher's character. And 3d. 
That as it is an emanation flowing from the very spirit of 
his own life, so it is also an influence acting insensibly to 
form the life of the scholar. . . . 

'' Wq are taught, and we teach, by something about ns 
that never goes into language at all. I believe that often 
this is the very highest kind of teaching, most charged 
with moral power, most apt to go down among the secret 
springs of conduct, most effectual for vital issues, for the 
very reason that it is spiritual in its character, noiseless in 
its pretensions, and constant in its operation. . . . 

" It is time, then, to pronounce more distinctly a fixed 
connection between a teacher's unconscious tuition and 
the foregoing discipline of his life. What he is to im- 
part, at least by this delicate and sacred medium, he must 
be. ' No admittance for shams ' is stamped on that sanc- 
tuary's door. JSTothing can come out that has not gone 
in. The measure of real influence is the measure of gen- 
uine personal substance. IIow much patient toil in ob- 
scurity, so much triumph in an emergency. The moral 
balance never lets us overdraw. If we expect our drafts 
to be honored in a crisis, there must have been the depos- 
its of a punctual life. To-day's simplest dealing with a 
raw or refractory pupil takes its insensible coloring from 
the moral climate you have all along been breathing. 
Celestial opportunities avail us nothing unless we have 
ourselves been educated up to their level. If an angel 
come to converse with us on the mountain-top, he must 
find our tent already pitched in that upper air. Each 
day recites a lesson for wdiicli all preceding days were a 



MORAL TKAINING. 53 

preparation. Oar real rank is determined, not by lucky 
answers or some brilliant impromptu, but by the nniform 
diligence. For the exhibition-days of Providence there 
is no preconcerted colloquy — no hasty retrieving of a 
wasted term by a stealthy study on the eve of the exam- 
ination." 



5i METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chaptek IY. 

INTELLECTUAL TRAINING. 

Physical culture is important, moral training is essen- 
tial ; but, by common consent and practice, intellectual de- 
velopment is made the leading object of the common- 
school. As succeeding chapters of this book relate main- 
ly to methods of intellectual training, this branch of tlie 
subject is here dismissed with a few brief allusions to the 
classification of the mental faculties, which seem to be 
necessary, in order that the directions, hints, and sugges- 
tions hereafter given may be made more clearly compre- 
hensible. It is not necessary that every teacher should be 
a metaphysician ; but it is desirable to know the elements 
of mental philosophy. The teacher ought to know, not 
what 7iiay be successful, after experiment, but what 'imcst 
be successful because based on the laws of nature. 

I. CLASSIFICATION OF THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 

The classification of the intellectual faculties which fol- 
lows is, in the main, that of Professor William Pussell."'^ 
I have adopted this, j)artly on account of its clearness, 
and partly from the partiality which a pupil feels for the 
w^ork of his former teacher. 

The three main divisions of the intellectual faculties 



* Russcirs Normal Training. 



INTELLECTUAL TRAINING. 55 

are (1) tlie perceptive, (2) the expressive, (3) the reflective. 
In education all these groups of powers are exerted, to 
some extent, simultaneously ; but with very different de- 
grees of relative activity and strength in the successive 
stages of school life. In the beginning, the perceptive 
faculties are most active ; then the expressive faculties 
come into freer play ; and, finally, the reflective or reason- 
ing powers are developed by slow degrees. 

II. THE PERCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 

The modes of action of these faculties are sensation, 
perception, attention, and observation ; their impelling 
force is curiosity, and the result of their action is Jcnowl- 
edge. These faculties are exceedingly active in childhood ; 
hence, in the order of nature, the first years of the child 
in school should be mainly devoted to such things as will 
best secure perceptive development. These processes con- 
sist of object-lessons ; of exercises in color, form, measure ; 
of writing and drawing ; of reading and speech ; of the 
elements of natural science ; and, in general, of exercises 
in observation which include examination, analysis, inspec- 
tion, comparison, discrimination, and classification, begun 
and carried on to a limited extent. ''Mind," says Bain, 
" starts from discrimination. Our intelligence is abso- 
lutely limited by our power of discrimination." 

" Analysis,^'' says Eussell, " is the grand instrument in 
all the operations of the perceptive faculties ; and of all 
the implements of science, it is the keenest in its edge, 
the truest in its action, and the surest in the results w^hich 
it attains. It is the key to knowledge in all departments 
of intelligence." 

Principles in Training. — ^^ Sensations, ^^ says Payne, 



56 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

"constitute the elements of knowledge, and sensations 
grow into ideas?'' 

'^Knowledge, with children," says Enssell, " is what they 
have experienced in their own intellect, by means of their 
own observation ; in other words, it is the accurate inter- 
pretation of the facts of sense in matters usually of color, 
form, number, weight, or sound, and the relations these 
bear to one another." 

Pestalozzi says, " If I look back and ask myself what I 
have really done towards the imj^rovement of elementary 
instruction, I find that, in recognizing observation as the 
absolute basis of all knowledge, I have established the 
first and most important principle of instruction." The 
distinguished German educator Niemeyer says, "AVhat 
is perceived by the senses is fixed in the mind more firm- 
ly than what is merely said over even a hundred times. 
It is not the shadows of things, but things themselves, 
which should be presented to youth." 

In order to train pupils to habits of observation, the 
teacher must make every effort to secure the fixed atten- 
tion of every pupil in the class to whatever is inspected^ 
to wdiatever is do7ie, and to whatever is said. The main 
instrument in securing an attentive examination of things 
is by means of skilful questioning. " The faculty of per- 
ception," says Niemeyer, " united with the endeavor to at- 
tain clear consciousness of the ideas received by means of 
exerted attention, is the life of thought ; w^ithout it, all 
teaching, all machinery for communicating ideas to the 
young, are useless. They may have ears and all the oth- 
er organs of sense, but they will neither hear, nor see, nor 
perceive ; /or theij loilljpay no attention^ 

It is easier to secure the attention of young children to 



INTELLECTUAL TKAINING. 57 

actual things than to spoken descriptions of things ; hence 
the value of object-lessons as a means of instruction. 
Things are learned more quickly and accurately through 
the eye than through the ear. "Without the object, the 
teacher may spend a long time in endeavoring to convey 
to a class, through the ear by description, an idea of what 
may be understood at a glance of the eye ; and, after all 
his pains, he may give his pupils the wrong idea. 

Kindergarten training is admirably adapted to call the 
perceptive faculties into appropriate exercise, while, at the 
same time, it calls into play the expressive faculties. The 
careful study of a Kindergarten manual, together with a 
few visits to a Kindergarten school, will supply every 
young teacher with ideas upon which to build a rational 
system of primary teaching. " Froebel," says Emily Shir- 
reff, " makes discipline of the moral and intellectual facul- 
ties his direct aim. lie cares more for the hahit of ob- 
serving than for the matter of the observation ; more for 
the correctness of the reasoning than for the subject on 
which it is exercised ; more for strict accuracy of thought 
and expression than for the amount of knowledge." 

In order to secure the best possible results in training 
young children to habits of attention and observation, 
there must be a frequent transition from one subject to 
another, and the hours of school confinement must not be 
too long. For children under eiglit years of age, the 
school -day ought not to exceed four hours, and those 
hours should be broken by two twenty-minute recesses. 
As to the limit of time in fixing the attention, the follow- 
ing is an approximate statement : A child from ^\q, to 
seven years of age may be able to give unflagging atten- 
tion to one lesson or subject for from ten to fifteen min- 

8->^ 



58 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

iites; from seven to ten years of age, from fifteen to 
twenty minutes; from ten to twelve years of age, from 
twenty to thirty minutes ; from twelve to sixteen years of 
age, from thirty to forty minutes. 

It is well to bear in mind the irrevocable law^ of nature, 
that worli in excess of the jpoioev of the system adds noth- 
ing to the residt achieved. 

III. THE EXPRESSIVE FACULTIES. 

The modes of action of these faculties are emotion, im- 
agination, fancy, imitation, personation, representation, 
language, and taste ; their impelling force {^feeling ; and 
the result of their action is commiinication. The educa- 
tional processes consist of exercises in language — w^ords, 
reading, grammar ; of practice in oral speech and written 
expression ; of studies in natural science and art. 

PTinci/ples in Training, — The first impulse of the child, 
on making some discovery by means of the senses, is to ex- 
press its surprise or satisfaction to others. Speech, in its 
early stages, is almost nnconscionsly acquired by imitation. 
The process is a long and slow one ; but by long-continned 
repetition it is effective. Here again the Kindergarten 
system is suggestive of natural methods of training, as op- 
posed to the old repressive system summed np in the for- 
mula "Study your book; don't ask questions." Well- 
conducted oral recitations afford the most effective means 
of securing correctness and readiness of oral exj^ression. 
"It is an obvious defect in teaching," says Bain, "to keep 
continually lecturing pupils without asking them, in turn, 
to reproduce and apply what is said." 

Eeadiness in written expression is a more difficult at- 
tainment than correctness of speech. Training in com- 



INTELLECTUAL TRAINING. 59 

position should begin as soon as the child can write at all, 
and should be continued during the whole period of school 
life. " The ability to define our thoughts," says Currie, 
"and to express them in a clear and orderly manner, may 
be taken as a practical test of an intellectual education." 
''A child," says Horace Mann, "must not only be exer- 
cised into correctness of observation, but into accuracy in 
the naiTation or description of what he has seen, heard, 
thought, or felt; so that whatever thoughts, emotions, 
memories, are within him, he can present them all to oth- 
ers in exact and luminous words." 

Imagination. — The first step is to train the pupil to ob- 
serve facts ; the next, to reproduce clearly the conception 
of facts, wdiich power may be classed under the term im- 
agination^ as that word is used to include the whole work 
of remembering, reproducing, and modifying the pictures 
of direct percej)tion. The imagination may be specially 
cultivated by the recitation of suitable poetry, by the 
speaking of dialogues, by declamations, by compositions 
upon subjects which exercise the inventive faculty, and 
by the perusal of the best works of creative genius. 

IV. THE REFLECTIVE FACULTIES. 

The modes of action of these faculties are included un- 
der the heads of memory, conception, consciousness, reason, 
understanding, and judgment ; their impelling force is in- 
giiiry; and the result of their action is truth. The edu- 
cational processes are language and grammar, composition 
and rhetoric, geography and history, mathematics and nat- 
ural science, or whatever is made a subject of thought. 

Princi])les in Training. — Memory ., as the basis of the 
reflective faculties, consists, not so much in remembering 



GO METHODS OF TEACHING. 

words to be repeated as in the power of retaining in the 
mind what has been experienced, observed, or conceived. 
In childhood, the memorizing of words is easy ; but the 
memory of ideas and principles and experiences is weak. 
As the pnpil advances in ^-ears, memory rises to a higher 
order of power, imtil it finally begins to act through the 
exercise of i\\Q judgment. 

" The retentive faculty," says Eain, "is the faculty that 
most of all concerns us in education. All improvement 
in the art of teaching depends on the attention that we 
give to the various circumstances that facilitate acquire- 
ment, or lessen the number of repetitions for a given ef- 
fect." 

The foundation of memory is attention. '^ As is the 
earnestness of attention^ so is the duration of rememhxtnce, 
or the distinctness and readiness of recollection.''^ 

Throughout the entire course of school training, the 
chief reliance of memory must be the freshness and force 
of attention both to things and words. " The more force 
we can throw into the act of noting a difference," says 
Bain, " the better is that difference felt, and the hetter it 
is imjpressedP 

In cultivating the memory, the teacher should bear in 
mind : (1) That children must be trained to habits of at- 
tention in every school exercise; (2) that this attention 
must not be too long-continued ; (3) that pupils must be 
accustomed to memorize poetry, dialogues, descriptions, 
and definitions, provided they first comprehend what they 
learn ; (4) that they must be trained to remember words 
as well as ideas ; (5) that what is told them by the teach- 
er, or is read aloud in the class, is better remembered than 
what they read silently from the printed page ; (6) that 



INTELLECTUAL TKAINING. 61 

there must be frequent reviews of ideas already acquired, 
in order to fix them permanently in the mind ; (7) that 
what they do for themselves is better remembered than 
what is told them by the teacher ; (8) and that constantly 
doing children's thinking for them is the worst possible 
way of making them reflective. 

" Experience teaches us," says Dr. Schwab, of Germany, 
'' more and more, from day to day, that a child will retain 
in its memory only what is incorporated into its life. It 
will forget what it has seen or heard, but rarely or never 
wdiat it has accomplished through its own efforts." 

The teacher must also take into consideration the fact 
that the inherent power of memory in different children 
is a variable quantity ; and this fact constitutes one of the 
difHcultics in the management of large classes. 'No meth- 
od and no teacher can impart to every pupil a retentive 
memory. But no teacher should, on the other hand, push 
to extremes those who are gifted by nature with great 
power of retaining. 

" The absolute power of retentiveness in any individual 
mind," says Bain, " is a limited quantity. There is no way 
of extending this limit except by encroaching on some of 
the other powers of the mind, or else by quickening the 
mental faculties altogether, at the expense of the bodily 
functions. An unnatural memory may be produced at 
the cost of reason, judgment, and imagination, or at the 
cost of the emotional aptitudes. This is not a desirable 
result." 

The reflective faculties are not fully developed during 
the period of school life, and a consideration of reason and 
judgment hardly comes within the scope of this chapter. 

''Beason, reasoning^ and giving reasons are intellectual 



G2 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

operations," says Bain. " not far removed from some of the 
meanings of judgment." " Mankind," says Faraday, " are 
willing, generally, to leave the faculties which relate to 
judgment almost entirely uneducated, and their decisions 
at the mercy of ignorance, prepossessions, the passions, or 
even accident. Society, speaking generally, is not only ig- 
norant as respects education of the judgment, but is also 
ignorant of its ignorance." Summing up the whole prov- 
ince of these faculties in a paragraph. Professor Russell 
says, ''^Reason comes to the mind laboring under uncer- 
tainty, and brings the aid of its discursive processes of ra- 
tiocination in the form of dissertation, argument, discus- 
sion, and debate. Assuming the seat of judgment, it thus 
institutes inquiry, conducts examination, prosecutes inves- 
tigation, discriminates terms, scrutinizes allegations, weighs 
opposing evidence, judges of facts, rejects assumptions, ex- 
poses error, detects truth or falsehood, and pronounces its 
authoritative and final decision as the inevitable law of 
intellection." 

Now the common-school teacher can hardly be expect- 
ed to accomplish a great deal with children, in respect to 
these faculties, when society furnishes so many cases of 
arrested development of the reason and udgment among 
adults ; but though learning to draw correct conclusions 
from facts is the hardest thing in the world to do, the 
teacher must not be deterred from attempting to lay a 
foundation for the habit of thinking, reflecting, and judg- 
ing. If the powers of observation, attention, memory, 
and discrimination are rightly trained in school, the whole 
after-life of the pupil may become a continuous course of 
education ; for in society, as in school, the sources of knowl- 
edge are reading, conversation, observation, and reflection. 



INTELLECTUAL TEAINING. 63 

It is a common fault in onr systems of instruction that 
the attempt is made to force the reasoning faculties into 
premature development. At ten years of age, children 
are set to work on deductive text-books which would be 
hard for scholars at fifteen. They are overworked, and 
the result is failure. Huxley, in speaking of the un- 
hapj^y children forced by the stimulating power of fre- 
quent competitive examinations to rise too early in their 
class, says, " They are conceited all the forenoon of their 
life, and stupid all the afternoon. The vigor and fresh- 
ness, which should have been stored up for the purposes 
of the hard struggle for existence in practical life, have 
been washed out of them by precocious mental debauch- 
ery — by book-gluttony and lesson-bibbing. Their facul- 
ties are worn out by the strain uj^on their callow brains, 
and they are demoralized by worthless childish triumphs 
before the real w^ork of life begins." 



(J4 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



CllAPTEK Y. 
SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 

I. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. 

The foundation of school, as of society, is law and or- 
der. The teacher must possess the power of enforcing 
the regulations which are essential to the existence of 
the school as a small social organization. School govern- 
ment does not depend wholly upon the teacher; there 
are two other important factors — home-training and the 
public opinion of the community of which the school is 
a part. 

The infliction of corporal punishment is one of the 
questions for the young teacher to meet at the outset of 
his career. The opinions generally held by practical 
teachers may be summed up as follows : 

1. It should be the aim of teachers to govern without 
resorting to corporal punishment. 

2. Teachers should have the right to inflict punishment 
in extreme cases. 

3. In general, it is better to subdue refractory pupils 
by corporal punishment than to expel them from school. 

4. As most parents are compelled, at times, to resort to 
corporal punishment in the home government of their 
children, so most teachers must sometimes resort to it in 
school. 

Occasionally there are men of great will-power, women 



SCHOOL GOYEENMENT. 65 

of great charm of manner, and teacliers of long experience, 
who govern well by moral suasion. Sometimes there are 
well-bred classes that can easily be controlled without 
force; but these exceptions aiford no basis for the sick- 
ly sentimentalism that characterizes all corporal punish- 
ments in school as barbarous and brutal. Most teachers 
are averse to whipping ; they often fail to inflict it when 
it is absolutely necessary for the good of the school. The 
traditional pedagogue, whose chief delight was in the fer- 
ule and ratan, is extinct. When all children are well gov- 
erned at home, when all teachers are professionally train- 
ed, when all parents are reasonable, when hereditary ten- 
dencies are more in harmony with existing social condi- 
tions, corporal punishment in school may safely be abol- 
ished. When humanity becomes so highly developed that 
civil law imposes no severe penalties to hold lawless im- 
pulses in check, it will be easy for any teacher to govern 
any school by moral influences only. 

At present, in school as in State, judicious severity is, in 
the end, the truest kindness. Fear of punishment and 
physical pain is the only check to the lawlessness of some 
children as well as of some men. The penalties of crime, 
which are awarded by the law of the State, are designed, 
not for the average law-abiding citizen, but for the excep- 
tional savage ; and corporal punishment in school is held 
as a terror only over the exceptional child. In his address 
before the London School Board, Huxley, with his char- 
acteristic pith, sets forth this practical philosophy as fol- 
lows : 

" But your ' street Arabs ' and other neglected poor 
children are rather worse and wilder than colts ; for the 
reason that the horse-colt has only his animal instincts in 



6G METHODS OF TEACHING. 

liim, and liis mother, the mare, has been always tender over 
him, and never came home drunk and kicked him in her 
life ; while the man-colt is inspired by that very real devil, 
perverted manhood, and his mother may have done all 
that and more. So, on the wdiole, it may probably be 
even more expedient to begin your attempt to get at the 
hiofher nature of the child than at that of the colt from 
i\iid 2yhysiGal side." 

II. SELF-CONTROL. 

Perhaps the most important object of school discipline 
is the formation of habits of self-control; but npon chil- 
dren whose impulses are strong and whose habits of self- 
control are weak, the hand of power must be laid, to re- 
mind them of duty and compel them to do it. 

The power to govern w^ell is an essential quality of ev- 
ery successful teacher. When a new instructor takes 
charge of a school or a class, there is always a trial of 
strength between the ruler and the ruled ; and w^oe be to 
that man or woman who falls a weak prey to young and 
merciless school tyrants. " A boy," says Plato, " is the 
most vicious of all wild beasts." 

The young are the creatures of impulse, and children 
seek to gratify their impulses at once, without reflection, 
and without reference to their moral character. To coun- 
teract this tendency, the care and oversight of both parents 
and teachers are necessary. Get the child to pause — to 
take time to ask, "Is this right or wrong?" — in other 
words, to tJiinh. In all these cases, the old rule for curb- 
ing a bad temper is very good — " Count ten slowly be- 
fore you speak or act." Teachers should strive to 
strengthen the child's will to do right. And it must be 
borne in mind that self-control is not learned in a fourteen 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 67 

weeks' course, as some languages and sciences are sup- 
j^osed to be ; but that it is acquired only by life-long ef- 
forts, and by those alone who oievei' give tip. " Give self- 
control," says Charles Buxton, " and you give the essence 
of all well-doing in mind, body, and estate. Morality, 
learning, thought, business, success — the master of him- 
self can master these." 

III. PUBLIC OPINION OF THE SCHOOL. 

The jDublic opinion of the school is an important ele- 
ment in discipline, and the teacher of tact will skilfully 
direct this power to the side of order and right-doing. 
Many a boy is influenced by the judgments of his fellows 
more than by the decisions of his teachers. There are in 
every school leaders in right -doing and ringleaders in 
wrong-doing; the teacher who can captivate one set and 
capture the other will secure good government. Few 
pupils can resist when they find themselves condemned 
by the common voice of their companions, whose censure 
they dread more than that of their superiors. A teacher 
can easily attach to himself the active, energetic, leading 
scholars by putting them into places of honor, trust, or 
duty; and, having done this, it is easy to secure their 
co-operation in establishing a wholesome and restraining 
school influence. 

IV. EMULATION. 

Emulation is a powerful agent in school; but it must 
be kept within bounds. Eank in class is important ; but 
it is not everything. Prizes and gifts cannot be, and ought 
not to be, much used as stimulants in a public school. 
" The schoolmaster's means of reward," says Bain, " is 
chiefly confined to approbation or praise, a great and 



68 METHODS OF TEACniNG. 

flexible instrument, yet needing delicate manipulation." 
A system of ranking pu^^ils according to percentage in 
recitations and written examinations lias, no doubt, its ad- 
vantages in stimulating pupils to study. But the wise 
teacher will check the spirit of reckless ambition in the 
wild race for promotion. In schools for girls, this spirit 
is often a great evil. Girls are more sensitive and more 
emotional than boys; and the emotions exhaust health 
faster than exertions of body or mind. With girls, the 
eagerness for success is so keen, the dread of failure is so 
acute, that they are easily injured by appeals to pride and 
ambition that might benefit boys. 

V. SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. 

In school discipline, much depends upon making pupils 
feel that rules and regulations are intended for their own 
good, not that they are made by the teacher for his own 
pleasure in exercising arbitrary power. Most pupils pre- 
fer order to disorder, firmness to weakness, law to lawless- 
ness. Hence calisthenics and military precision in march- 
ing are efficient aids in securing prompt obedience to com- 
mands. It is evident enough to pupils themselves that 
one object of discipline is to secure a sufficient degree of 
order, quietness, and regularity to enable them to pursue 
their studies and recite their lessons without interruption ; 
but the higher aim of strict discipline is often lost sight 
of — namely, to train the will, and to incite scliolars to put 
forth vigorous efforts for self-improvement and self-con- 
trol. 

Eternal vigilance is the price of order in the school- 
room. The teacher must have an eye like a hawk to see 
wliat is going on, and a quick ear to detect noise. ^'Dis- 



SCHOOL GOVEKNMENT. 69 

order," sajs Bain, "is the sure sequel of the teacher's fail- 
ure in sight or hearing; but even with tlie senses good, 
there may be absent the watchful employment of them. 
This is, in itself, a natural incapacity for the work of teach- 
ing. A teacher must not merely be sensitive to incipient 
and masked disorder ; he must read the result of his teach- 
ing in the pupil's eyes." 

VI. OBSTINACY. 

It is good policy to avoid driving strong-willed children 
into obstinacy. It is a sad mistake " to break a child's 
will" as the foundation of control over him. Respect the 
j)ersonality and individuality of every pupil. By a little 
patience and forbearance, you may bring to bear on the 
self-willed child the influence of kindness, sympathy, or 
reason. Set your own tact against the dull, brutish obsti- 
nacy of your pupil. A forced submission often ends in 
sullen doggedness or a smouldering fire of rebellion. The 
child must learn obedience ; that is the first and greatest 
of lessons. From childhood to old age, all human beings 
must obey the laws of society and the laws of nature. 
With the impulsive and inexperienced child, real affection 
for the teacher will secure implicit obedience, and nothing 
else will. 

VII. SCHOOL DESPOTISM. 

The government of a school must be, in many res23ects, 
an absolute monarchy, and it will have all the vices of a 
despotism unless its ruler has a high sense of responsibili- 
ty, and a knowledge of children based upon a careful study 
of the nature of body and of mind. The despotism ought 
to be a modification of patriarchal rule. 

" It is in dealing with numbers," saj^s Bain, " that the 



70 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

teacher stands clistinguislied from tlic parent, and allied 
to the wider authorities of the State ; exercising larger 
control, encountering greater risks, and requiring a more 
steady hand. With an individual pupil, we need only 
such motives as are personal to himself ; with numbers, 
we are under the harsh necessity of punishing for exam- 
ple. . . . The stress of the teacher's difficulty lies in the 
heavings of a mass or multitude. One man against a 
multitude is always in the post of danger." 

VIII. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

[Selected from Bain's Science of Education.'] 

1. "Eestraints sliould be as few as the situation admits 
of." 

2. "Duties and offences should be definitely expressed, 
so as to be clearly understood." 

3. "Voluntary dispositions are to be trusted as far as 
they can go." 

4. " By organization and arrangement, the occasions of 
disorder are avoided." 

5. " The awe and influence of authority are maintained 
by a certain formality and state." 

G. " It is understood that authority, with all its appur- 
tenances, exists for the benefit of the governed, and not 
as a perquisite of the governor." 

7. "' The operation of mere vindictiveness should be cur- 
tailed to the uttermost." 

8. " The reasons for repression and discipline should, as 
far as possible, bo made intelligible to those concerned ; 
and should be referable solely to the general good." 



SCHOOL GOVEENMENT, 



IX. CONDENSED DIRECTIONS. 

1. School discipline, like instruction, will take form from 
the temperament and cliaracter of the teacher. A reputa- 
tion for impartial judgment is the essential requisite of 
the teacher who governs well. 

2. Make but few rules, and do not indulge in much talk- 
ing about infringements of them. Remember that pujDils, 
as well as teachers, have rights^ and that both have duties. 

3. Put yourself in the place of your pupils. Recall 
your own school experiences, your hopes and fears, your 
impulses, your notions, and the motives that influenced 
you. If you do so, you cannot become a tyrant. 

4. Secure order, if possible, without corporal punish- 
ment ; but secure obedience at all hazards. In school, as 
in an army, discipline is essential to existence. 

5. The best way to lead pupils to study is, not by threats 
and compulsion, but by showing them how to use their 
text-books, by explaining and illustrating their hard les- 
sons, and by appealing to the higher motives. 

6. Do not tempt your pupils to become habitually de- 
ceitful and untruthful, by making use of the " self-report- 
ing system " in scholarship and deportment. It is a de- 
vice worthy of the Inquisition. " It is," says F. S. Jewell, 
" both stupidly ingenious and transparently vicious." 

Y. Regard all jDupils as truthful until you have positive 
proof to the contrary. Children with a high sense of 
honor will never forgive you for doubting their word, or 
for making an unjust accusation. " The only teacher I 
ever intensely hated," said a noted instructor, "was a young 
woman who charged me, unjustly, before the school, with 
telling a lie, when I was only seven years old." Trust 



72 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

your pupils if you want tliem to put their trust in you. 
" The sweetest praise I ever heard," said a public man, 
" was the remark made by my father when I was twelve 
years old : ' My boy never told me a lie in his life.' " 

8. Encourage truthfulness by rewarding full and frank 
confession with a remission of penalties, so far as is con- 
sistent with school discipline. Severity is one of the chief 
causes of lying and deceit. It excites fear, and fear seeks 
an easy refuge in cunning and evasion. 

9. Whispering must be repressed with a firm hand. It 
cannot be entirely prevented, but it may be checked so as 
to prevent disturbance and annoyance. One good way of 
checking it is to allow a short whispering-recess every 
hour or half -hour. 

10. As prevention is better than punishment, children 
should be trained to a general habit of ^^rompt obedience 
in minor matters, so that finally they will submit readily 
to prohibitions which curb their strong inclinations and 
tendencies. 

11. Penalties and punishments must be certain, and 
must seem to be the natural consequences of wrong acts. 
The child should know luhat he has to expect, and when 
to expect it. There must be no caprice, no variableness, 
no shadow of turning. The child soon learns to yield to 
the inevitable. 

12. Do not worry ; do not be discouraged ; think that 
your agitation, your nervousness, will extend to your pu- 
pils. Unite patience with hope, gentleness with firmness, 
equanimity with force of character. Have a pleasant 
voice and a cheerful countenance, and show yourself the 
sincere friend of every pupil ; let your school be one that 
will always have agreeable associations connected with it ; 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 73 

but if an emergency comes, be prompt and resolute to 
meet it, but always calm. 

13. Take care of the health of your pupils. See that 
all exercise during the time assigned for that purpose. 
Keep the room well ventilated, but expose none to 
draughts. A strong constitution with fair abilities is bet- 
ter than brilliant tal-ents in a feeble frame. Many a brill- 
iant man has broken down from want of stamina. It is 
the steady worker that succeeds. Industry, patience, per- 
severance, energy, endurance, are the keys that unlock the 
door of success, and these qualities cannot be found in 
weak and sickly bodies. 

li. Ee tolerant of thoughtlessness, and severe only in 
cases of wilful disobedience. 

15. Do not assign mental tasks after school hours as a 
punishment. The practice of compelling children to com- 
mit to memory or to translate, as a penalty, is educational 
barbarism. 

16. One of the most effective means of punishment is to 
deprive the offender of some privilege, or to cut him off 
from the society of schoolmates at recess or intermission. 

17. Among schoolboys, fighting is a constant source of 
disturbance. It is next to impossible entirely to prevent 
it; but it may be greatly lessened by cultivating a true 
sense of honor, to take the place of the conventional code 
prevalent among boys. A little good-natured ridicule 
will sometimes prove very effective. 

18. " Strong terms of reproof," says Bain, " should be 
sparing, in order to be effective. Still more sparing ought 
to be the tones of anger. Loss of temper, however excus- 
able, is really victory to wrong-doers, although, for the mo- 
ment, it may strike terror." 

4 



74 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

19. Common - sense is in the highest degree requisite 
for the right administration of school affairs. It is easy 
enough to sit in judgment on the Mack cases and the 
wJiite^ but tlie gray cases are the difficult ones. Nothing 
but sound judgment can determine a large class of school 
offences. 

20. There is a conventional sense of honor among school- 
boys which binds them not to inform the teacher of the 
misdeeds of their fellows. However false this code may 
be, he is an unwise teacher who takes ground against the 
school opinion, and endeavors, by threats of punishment, 
to compel pupils to become informers. Let him put his 
tact against the brute power of the school, and he may 
Succeed in modifying the school code so as to draw a line 
of distinction between the minor matters that belong to 
the " tattling order " and the graver offences that concern 
the real welfare of the school. 

21. A foundation principle of school government is that 
every pupil shall be allowed the largest liberty possible, 
without infringing on the rights, interests, or convenience 
of others. 

22. Do your utmost to prevent faults before you think 
of punishing them. Be patient and forbearing, for obe- 
dience is a habit formed only by long -continued train- 
ing. " Avoid direct collision with children," says Buxton. 
" Have tact enough to divert the child's attention from its 
own obstinacy, and in a few moments you will lead it 
gently round to submission." 

23. Do not assume that the parent is yonr natural ene- 
my, and, above all, do not act as if he were. Parents have 
rights, and are generally reasonable if those rights are re- 
spected. 



SCHOOL GOVEKNMENT. 75 

24. Do not make cast-iron rules with nncliangeable pen- 
alties. If you fail to enforce fixed penalties, you lose the 
respect of your pupils ; and if you do enforce them, you 
may often be guilty of injustice. Give your verdict and 
pass sentence after the conviction of the culprit. 

X. PUNISHMENT. 

1. There can be no government wliere there is no pun- 
ishment ; but the teacher's aim should be to prevent, as 
far as practicable, the necessity of punishment. 

2. The true object of school punishment is to reform 
the offender, to deter others from wrong- doing, and to 
maintain law. 

3. TJie chief means of preventing the necessity of pun- 
ishment are : (1) active and pleasant employment, (2) the 
personal influence of the teacher, and (3) the public opin- 
ion of the school. 

4. Punishment must be varied according to the temper- 
ament of the child. A frown will act on one ; separation 
from companions, on another ; neglect and coldness, on a 
third ; public reprimands, on a fourth ; and a whipping, 
on a fifth. ^'The first and readiest, and ever the best, 
form of punishment," says Bain, " is censure, reprobation, 
dispraise." 

5. In general, for younger children, corporal punish- 
ment is most effective ; for older pupils, isolation, loss of 
privileges, or appeals to a sense of honor. 

6. Do not make threats of punishment in advance of 
offences ; you will only tempt pupils to try you by dis- 
obeying, or suggest to them the doing of something they 
would otherwise never have thought of. 

7. It is the certainty^ not the severity^ of punishment 



76 METHODS OF TEACIimG. 

that deters pupils from violating regulations. Make your 
penalties light, hut as certain as the rising and setting of 
the sun. 

8. " It is a rule in punishment," says Bain, '' to try slight 
penalties at first ; with the hotter natures, the mere idea of 
punishment is enough ; severity is entirely unnecessary^ 
It is a coarse and hlundering system that knows of noth- 
ing but the severe and degrading sorts." 

9. Do not try to make scholars learn by whipping them 
for unlearned lessons. 

10. Never strike a child on the head. N^ever inflict per- 
sonal indignities, such as pulling the hair, pulling the ears, 
slapping the face ; for they excite the bitterest resentment, 
and are seldom forgiven. 

11. In extreme cases of wilful and open defiance of au- 
thority, punishment may be inflicted publicly and imme- 
diately before the school ; but, in general, it is better to 
inflict it in private, not in anger, but coolly and deliber- 
ately. 

12. Before whipping, he absolutely certain of the guilt 
of the offender, and then inflict punishment so thoroughly 
that it will be remembered. Your object is to inflict j^ain 
so as to deter the culprit from further wrong-doing. 

13. It is a good rule to p)Ostpone the infliction of pun- 
ishment to the next day — especially in bad cases. Tell 
the boy to come to school the next morning half an hour 
before school-time, and that in the meantime you will 
think the matter over, and w^ill then let liim know what 
your deliberate decision is in his case. It is surprising 
what a change a little delay or a night's sleep will make 
in the feelings of both teacher and pupil — the former los- 
ing his irritation, and the latter his stubbornness. 



SCHOOL GOVERNMENT. 71 

14. If yon have a case that calls for some severe pun- 
ishment of the offender, consult the parents, if possible, 
before you take action. By doing so you may avoid com- 
plaints, irritation, and ill-feeling. But there are cases that 
demand summary punishment as soon as the offence is 
committed. 

15. "Where a school is well conducted," says Horace 
Mann, " the minifimm of punishment is the maximum of 
qualifications." 

16. " The sense of honor," says Superintendent Harris, 
"is developed earlier with each succeeding generation, 
and corporal punishment should give place to punish- 
ments affecting the sense of honor as soon as this sense 
develops." 

" When corporal j)unishment is kept up," says Bain, " it 
should be at the far end of the list of penalties ; its slight- 
est application should be accounted the worst disgrace." 



78 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chapter YL 
THE SCHOOLROOM. 

I. SPECIAL DIRECTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR PRINCIPALS. 

1. Bear in mind that an assemblage of classes does not 
constitute a school until a principal lias breathed into it a 
soul. 

2. Kemember that with assistants, as with other people, 
requests and suggestions are pleasanter and more effective 
than authoritative directions. Respect the rights and 
privileges as well as the duties of assistants, and you will, 
in general, get along pleasantly and peaceably with them, 
and will secure w^hat is essential to your own success — 
their hearty co-operation in your plans and methods. One 
of Thomas Arnold's noblest reforms was to raise the un- 
der-masters from being little better than menials to the 
position of honored and trusted associates and instructors. 

3. Be patient with the shortcomings of inexperienced 
assistants, remembering that yon yourself were, once in 
your life, a young teacher without experience. 

4r. Do not expect assistants to do everything in exactly 
your way. Insist upon uniformity only in essentials, al- 
lowing the widest possible scope for the exercise of indi- 
viduality in the details of school-work. 

5. Caution young assistants against overwork and wor- 
ry ; against detaining pupils after school ; and against ex- 
pecting to make good scholars out of all their j^ujiils. 



THE SCHOOLEOOM. 79 

6. It is a part of your duty to outline the grade-work of 
assistants ; to see tliat tliey make a proper use of globes, 
maps, charts, and other school appliances; and to order 
such reviews and general exercises as shall secure atten- 
tion to the essential things of the course of study. 

7. Make a systematic use of the school library, and in- 
struct your assistants to keep a close supervision over what 
their pupils read, and how they read it. If there is no 
school library, both principal and assistants should influ- 
ence their pupils' selection of books from the public library. 

8. As far as practicable, arrange your school course so 
that some studies in the year's w^ork may be completed 
before others are taken up. In other words, do not crowd 
the minds of pupils with too many things at once. 

9. It is your duty in written examinations to direct the 
attention of your assistants to the main joints in each of 
the studies pursued, not to distract their efforts by dwell- 
ing on particulars. Prepare your questions with care and 
judgment. The art of asking suitable questions is essen- 
tial to good supervision, for the questions will determine 
in no small degree the kind of instruction given by as- 
sistants. Take your own knowledge of the subject with- 
out referring to a text-book; consider a simple fraction 
of that, and you may succeed in making out a set of 
questions suited to the capacity of your pupils. When 
you are preparing questions, think of how little you 
knew when a pupil, not of what you know now, after years 
of teaching, or with a book open before you. " How fev/ 
examiners," says Homer B. Sprague, Principal of the 
Girls' High School in Boston, " know enough to separate 
the transient from the permanent, discriminate between 
knowledge that must be kept in readiness to do service 



80 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

at any moment and knowledge tliat, having served its 
purpose as discipline, may without loss be forgotten !" 

10. During tlie year, prevent " cramming" by never let- 
ting your pujiils know when an examination is to hap- 
pen. Hold examinations at irregular intervals, and not 
too often. Make the percentages obtained subordinate 
to good standing won by daily attention to school- work. 
" Like everything else that is good," says Superintendent 
Eliot, " like exercise, like study, like enthusiasm, exam- 
inations can be perverted, and then they turn into evil. 
Just as any other burden^, these may bend the shoulders 
and break the spirit, or they may be borne upon uplifted 
head and w^ith buoyant heart." 

11. As the annual examination for promotion or gradu- 
ation draws near, do not lash your assistants and scholars 
into a state of feverish excitement. Huxley justly styles 
the stimulating of pupils to work at high-pressure, by in- 
cessant competitive examinations, '' the Abomination of 
Desolation." A principal should be calm, cool, w^ell-bal- 
anced, and steady, and should keep his school so. " There 
is nothing so terrible," says Goethe, " as activity without 
insight." 

12. Do not require assistants to correct an armful of 
papers every night at home. They need the time for rest, 
recreation, and reading. This work is a thankless drudg- 
ery, and, in most cases, a useless labor. Except in official 
examinations ordered by superintendents, let your assist- 
ants train their pupils to exchange papers, and, under the 
guidance of the teacher, correct one another's exercises 
during school hours. On this point Superintendent Eliot 
says, "While it is wise to test instruction, it is unwise 
to make as much of testinoj as of instructing:. Yet this is 



TUE SCIIOOLKOOM. 81 

the natural result of keeping teachers busy as examiners. 
The preparation and correction of examination papers ab- 
sorb a large amount of time and force tliat might be bet- 
ter used." 

13. If you are allowed any discretion whatever under the 
rigid rule of graded-school machinery in cities, classify and 
promote pupils somewhat according to age, circumstances, 
and apparent latent capacity, not by " percentage " alone. 
" The living human being," says Dr. Wiese, in speaking 
of written examinations, " is not an arithmetical problem." 

IJ:. In your higher-grade classes, make frequent oral re- 
view examinations on the essential elements, so that pupils 
may not only Tcnow something, but also may be able to tell 
it. A proper oral examination wall show better than a 
written one what has been acquired. 

15. A w^eekly spelling-match will be found a good gen- 
eral exercise in exciting a lively interest in orthography. 
A week in advance, send out a list of fifty or one hundred 
words in current use liable to be misspelled, and let all the 
grammar-grade classes coj^y it into blank-books for the 
next lesson. Or assign a suitable lesson in the spelling- 
book, if a good one is in use. The match may be conduct- 
ed in w^'iting, and the percentage rejoorted by each class ; 
or orally, matching classes in pau^s, a higher grade against 
a lower. 

16. For a general exercise in composition, assign some 
suitable topic to all the grammar grades, and another topic 
to the higher primary grades. Then exchange the com- 
positions by classes, requiring the higher grades to cor- 
rect the work of the lower, and allowing the lower grades 
to be benefited by reading the compositions of the higher 
grades. All children feel a lively interest in anything 

4* 



82 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

written by some one they know. Or give out a subject a 
week in advance, and tell the pupils to collect all the in- 
formation about it they please ; but require them to write 
it out in school, so as to prevent the possibility of their 
copying or receiving outside assistance. 

17. If your assistants are inexperienced in graded-school 
work, mark out month by month what they ought to ac- 
complish in each branch of study. 

18. Instruct your assistants to allow regular intervals 
for study in school. In some branches, such as geogra- 
phy, history, arithmetic, and spelHng, the first ten minutes 
of the half -hour intended for recitation may profitably 
be given to study, provided the teacher sees that pupils 
do actually study. 

19. Instruct your assistants what lessons to assign for 
home study, and see to it that the lessons so assigned are 
of reasonable length. Arithmetic lessons and composi- 
tions or exercises which are to be written ought not to be 
given out for home work. Few of your pupils may have 
conveniences for waiting at home. Only lessons which 
require mainly an exercise of memory, and w^hich are 
learned from the book, are suitable for out-of-school study ; 
such as spelling, geography, and history. In order to as- 
certain if your assistants carry out your instructions, re- 
quire them at intervals to report to you the exact lessons 
which they assign, or let them appoint some member of 
each class to report to you. 

20. Do not allow assistants to assign any lessons w^hat- 
ever to pupils in grades below the fourth school-year ; ex- 
cept, perhaps, a spelling-lesson, or a reading-lesson to be 
read aloud to parents. 

21. Set apart, every week, half an hour on Monday or 



THE SCIIOOLKOOM. 83 

Friday for a lesson in each room on morals and manners. 
Sometimes assign the same topic for all grades, and some- 
times let assistants select their own subject and conduct 
the exercise in their own way. 

22. When you discover pale, weak, sickly, fast-growing 
boys or girls in any of your classes, advise parents to take 
them out of school for a season, and turn them loose at 
work or play. 

23. Insist upon neatness of person and dress, propriety 
of language and deportment, truthfulness and honesty, dil- 
igence and obedience. 

24. It is a part of your duty as principal to impress 
upon every pupil in every class the dignity of work, 
either mental or manual, and the necessity of labor as a 
means of happiness. 

25. Merely looking on and seeing assistants teach is 
not doing a principal's whole duty in supervision. If 
you are relieved from teaching a special class, you must 
teach enough in every class to direct assistants and to give 
spirit to every pupil. 

26. Have no hobby, but give appropriate time and at- 
tention to every study laid down in the prescribed course 
of instruction. 

27. Be satisfied to introduce new and improved methods 
slowly. Assistants, as a general rule, settle into their own 
ways, and are reluctant to change them. " I came to Rug- 
by," says Arnold, " full of plans for school reform ; but I 
soon found that the reform of a public school was a much 
more difficult thing than I had imagined." 

28. Endeavor to secure from your teachers a wise com- 
bination of oral and object teaching after the ne^^ style, 
with the old-fashioned text-book drill. Personal investi- 



84 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

gation is good, to a certain extent, both for teaclier and 
pupil ; but neither that nor lectures can accomplish much 
compared with the accumulated knowledge of the race 
crystallized into good books. It is quite as possible for 
oral instruction to degenerate into idle babble as for text- 
book study to run into meaningless memorizing. 

29. In government, the strongest force is the public 
opinion of the school. Spare no efforts to turn this opin- 
ion in the right direction, so that its rules, customs, judg- 
ments, decisions, and unwritten laws shall be inexorably 
binding on every new-comer, with a force greater than 
that of master or assistant. When you have breathed the 
breath of life into your school, when you can feel every 
beat of its pulse, then you are really its master. 

30. Do not try to please everybody; do not expect to 
make your school perfect; do not sacrifice your pupils 
to your personal ambition for making brilliant scholars. 
When you get impatient with dulness, remember that all 
lasting progress is slow. 

31. Cultivate a habit of cheerfulness that shall shine 
out from your countenance like the liglit of the rising 
sun. Assistants and pupils may take their tone from the 
manner of the principal. "A teacher has only partially 
comprehended the familiar powers of his place," says 
Huntington, "who has left out the lessons of his own 
countenance. There is a perpetual picture w^hich his puj)ils 
study as unconsciously as he exhibits it. Ilis plans will 
miscarry if he expects a genial and nourishing session 
when he enters with a face blacker than the blackboard." 

32. If you stop growing intellectually, if you forget you 
were ance a boy or a girl, if you lose your sympathy with 
children, it is time for you to resign. 



THE SCHOOLROOM. 85 

33. If you would secure the best results of a good school, 
keep up your enthimasm, and fire your school with it. 
"Without enthusiasm," says Chadbourne, " no teacher can 
have the best success, however learned and faithful and 
hard-working he may be. Enthusiasm is tlie heat that 
softens the iron, that every blow may tell. Enthusiasm, 
on the part of the teacher, gives life to the student, and 
an impulse to every mental power. When this is accom- 
plished, there is no more waste in lifting, dragging, or driv- 
ing. It was the enthusiasm of Agassiz that clothed the 
commonest things with new life and beauty ; that charmed 
every listener, and transformed the aged and the young, 
the ignorant and the learned, into joyful learners." 

34. In the long summer vacations, flee to the woods or 
tlie mountains, where you can rest, think, and absorb vital- 
ity from nature. Otherwise there is danger that you may 
have all your individuality taken out of you by the steady 
drain of nervous force, and that you may degenerate into 
a pedagogic machine. 

II. SPECIAL DIRECTIONS FOR ASSISTANTS. 

1. Carry out, in good faith, the methods and general 
regulations of your principal. 

2. It is not best for you to say you know more than the 
principal, even if you thinh so. 

3. Do not expect principals to be absolutely perfect ; if 
they were, they would be unsuited to assistants. 

4. As far as possible, govern your class yourself. Every 
time you refer a case of discipline to the principal, you 
weaken your own authority in the eyes of your ]3upils. 

5. Do not worry your scholars all the year with the 
threat that they will probably fail to be promoted. 



86 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Your duty is, not to discourage pupils, but to encourage 
tliem. 

6. Do not make it your chief ambition to promote ev- 
ery member of your class; in every class of fifty there 
must be a few failures, and there will probably be a few 
that are too young to be advanced. 

7. You have no right to expect that any class just pro- 
moted from a lower grade into your room is deficient in 
nothing ; therefore, it is not wise for you to make sharp 
allusions to the shiftlessness of the previous teacher. 

8. Consider your class a part of the school as a whole, 
not as your exclusive possession. 

9. A large school must be conducted on strict business 
principles, in regard to j)unctuality and promptness on the 
part of teachers as well as pupils ; but it is not desirable to 
make a hobby of extremely high reports in respect to at- 
tendance. Cheerfully excuse both tardiness and absence 
occasioned by home duties or by sickness in the family. 

10. Be patient and forbearing with your pupils when 
they take up a new study. It is the first trials that are 
awkward and hard. When you get impatient at slowness 
or want of comprehension, sit down at your desk and try to 
write with your left hand, or to read a page upside down. 

11. Remember that what your pupils do for themselves 
makes the strongest impression on their minds. 

12. Assign reasonable lessons suited to the capacity, not 
*of the hest^ but of the average scholars. Look out for es- 
sentials, and let non-essentials alone. 

13. Divide your class into two sections, and match one 
against the other. Make up a match between your class 
and another of the same grade. These matches will awak- 
en a generous spirit of class rivalry. 



THE scnooLKooM. 87 

14. Do not allow your pupils to discover that they can 
annoy you. If they are noisy, you must keep calm, cool, 
and quiet, and speak in your lowest tone. 

15. Seldom detain your scholars after school for disci- 
pline, and never detain them long to study unlearned les- 
sons. " Iso Learning," says Socrates, as translated by Rog- 
er Ascham, " ought to be learned with Bondage ; for bod- 
ily Labours wrought by Compulsion hurt not the Body ; 
but any Learning learned by Compulsion tarrieth not long 
in the Mind." 

16. In some studies, it may be advisable, before each 
recitation in a graded class, to allow from five to ten min- 
utes for studying the lesson to be recited. 

17. If you assign home lessons, show your pupils how 
to study those lessons, so that they can learn them without 
calling for assistance from parents. As a general rule, do 
not require examples in arithmetic, or any other exercises 
in writing to be done at home. 

18. Do not reprove, but encourage, slow, plodding chil- 
dren. Dr. Arnold says he never was so ashamed in his 
life as when, after a sharp reproof, a boy turned to him 
and said, " Why do you speak angrily, sir ? Indeed, I am 
doing the best I can." 

19. Exercise all your tact to mould the spirit of your 
class, so that it shall be exerted on your side in favor of 
good order and right-doing. 

20. Teaching is the work of the teacher ; learning is the 
duty of the pupil. How to rightly combine teaching and 
learning is the difficult problem that every teacher must 
try to solve by long -continued study and observation. 
The scholar's efforts to learn by book-study must be made 
profitable by good teaching. " Learning without teach- 



88 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

ing," says Ascliam's Scholemaster, " makes lubbers, always 
learning, never j^rofiting." 

21. Stand ready to give a fair consideration to new 
methods in teaching, even if they differ from your pre- 
conceived ideas. " The only way in which a human be- 
ing can make some approach to knowing the wdiole of a 
subject," says John Stuart Mill, " is by hearing what can 
be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion, 
and studying all modes in which it can be looked at by 
every character of mind. [N'o wise man ever acquired 
his wisdom in any mode but this; nor is it in the nature 
of human intellect to become wise in any other manner." 

22. Do not expect, even by the very best teaching, to 
make good scliolars out of all your pupils. " No teacher," 
says Prof. Raumer, " should ever seek, by excessive stimu- 
lation, to spur on his pupils to an unnatural point of at- 
tainment which most of them can never reach." "I hate 
by-roads to education," says Dr. Johnson ; " endeavoring 
to make children prematurely w^ise is useless labor." . 

23. " Remember the care of your health," says Carlyle. 
"You are to regard that as the very liighest of all tem- 
poral things for you. There is no achievement j^ou could 
make in the world that is equal to perfect health." 

HI. MANAGEMENT IN GENERAL. 

1. First of all, make your school pleasant. The primary 
condition of a learner is satisfaction in learning. Spencer 
says, " to enlist pleasure on the side of intellectual perform- 
ance is a point of the utmost importance." " The first duty 
towards children," says Buxton, "is to make them happy. 
Their school may teacli them all learning and all righteous- 
ness; but if the pupils are not happy, it is a bad school." 



THE SCHOOLEOOM. 89 

2. Make np your mind that you must leave many things 
untaught ; no man or woman ever yet succeeded in teach- 
ing everything. Do not expect your pupils to know as 
much as you do, and do not call them dull or stupid be- 
cause they fail in things that seem to you to be simple 
and easy. 

3. The less you threaten, the less you find fault, the 
less you scold, the more friends you will have among the 
boys and girls, and the better will be your school. 

4. Unless you wish to be hated, beware of sarcasm and 
ridicule. A cutting remark is never forgotten and sel- 
dom forgiven. 

5. Consent cordially and gracefully, but let your refusals 
be firm and absolute. 

G. Be courteous and polite; you can more easily win 
children by kindness than drive them by authority. 

7. If everything seems to go wrong in school, it is quite 
probuble that you yourself are out of humor or out of 
health. 

8. You will commit a physical sin if you break down 
your health and induce nervous exhaustion by overwork, 
wony, or anxiety about your scholars. Your first and 
highest duty is to work moderately, sleep long and sound- 
ly, and keep yourself in high physical condition in order 
to do the gi'oatest amount of effective work. 

0. Bear in mind that your chief work, beyond impart- 
ing a small stock of specific knowledge, is to teach your 
jntjpils the right vxuj to learn for themselves, just as little 
children are taught to walk in order that they may go 
alone. 

10. It is only the poorest teachers and the untrained 
ones that do all the hard work for their pupils. Agassiz 



90 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

said that the worst service a teacher could render to a 
pupil was to give him a ready-made answer. 

11. The best teachers are those whose pupils are made 
daily more and more able to pursue their studies without 
teachers, and whose pupils are awakened to an irresistible 
desire to hioio. " Instil into the minds of your pupils, 
if you can," says Arthur Helps, " a love and a desire for 
knowledge. "What a triumph it is for you, if, while he is 
under your care, you influence him in such a manner that 
you make study a thing of delight to him ! And what a 
failure it is if he throws you and your books overboard 
as soon as he leaves you 1" 

12. Beware of sacrificing children to your personal am- 
bition. " There is no hardness of heart," says the Kev. Dr. 
Mayo, " like that of the teacher infuriated with ambition 
for the mental progress of a child." '' Our schools," says 
Eliot, "are for our pupils, not our pupils for our schools." 

13. Make use of the stimulus of praise ; but use it spar- 
ingly, so that it may be of value when bestowed. Given 
with good judgment, commendation is a powerful agency ; 
but prizes and distinctions often produce the worst effects 
in school. Generous emulation is good, but the selfish 
pride of rivalry is bad. 

14:. While it is your policy to make school pleasant for 
all, and to make school studies as agreeable as possible, 
there comes a time when the older pupils must be trained 
to face drudgery as a duty. Then, in the words of Bain, 
" Try to measure the child's power to support the strain 
of forced attention. Begin the discipline of life by in- 
uring gradually to uninviting, to repugnant and severe 
occupation ; but see also that you have at command the 
alternative of relaxation with enjoyment." 



THE SCHOOLEOOM. 91 



IV. THE CLASS TEACHER. 

1. With beginners, in every study, the first processes 
must be learned slowly and very thoroughly by long-con- 
tinued iteration. The important point is, not liow much 
they learn, but hoio well they learn it. 

2. Make the text-book subordinate to skilful teaching. 
The text-book is designed only as an aid both to pupil 
and teacher, and you must show scholars how to make 
the best possible use of it. Show them how to find out 
the meaning of a printed page; but bear in mind the 
words of Spencer, " that the function of books is supple- 
mentary — a means of seeing through other men's eyes 
wdiat you cannot see for yourself." 

3. You can best show your pupils how to study a lesson 
by going over it with them in advance, calling their at- 
tention to the leading facts, and vitalizing dead words by 
the living voice. In many lessons, pupils do not know 
what to study, nor Jioio to study ; it is a part of your duty 
to direct their efforts. " There is no harm, but good," 
says Bain, " in exacting a certain amount of independent 
preparation, especially with older pupils ; but the teacher's 
first recitation, and the final iteration during the lessons, 
are the principal instrumentality whereby the lesson is 
fixed in the memory; the learner'' s oimi studies are the 
smallest contribution to the effect P 

4. If you expect to have lessons learned at all, make 
them short. In the machine-work of graded schools, where 
text-books are crammed by pages, this principle is habit- 
ually violated. 

5. As a rule, when conducting a class exercise, stand. 
If you are too weak to stand all the time, stand occasion- 



92 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

ally. Stand where you can sec the face of every scholar 
in your class during a recitation. ''In Germany," says 
Horace Mann, " I never saw a teacher hearing a recitation 
with a book in his hand, nor a teacher sitting while hear- 
ing a recitation." 

6. Use your eyes. Look your pupils in the eye when 
you question them, and make them look you in the eye 
wdien they answer. 

7. Keep your voice down to the conversational key. A 
quiet voice is music in the schoolroom. 

8. Make up your mind to secure and hold the attention 
of every member of the class. A lesson has never been 
given unless it has been received. 

0. Lighten up your class with a pleasant countenance. 
The teacher who cannot occasionally join in a hearty laugh 
with scholars lacks one element of power. "Whatever 
temper you have suffered to grow up in the gradual habit 
of years," says the Eev. F. D. Huntington, " that will get 
a daily revelation over your desks as visible as any maps 
on the w^alls." 

10. Have something interesting to say to your scholars 
at every recitation. If you can keep your pupils busily 
at work, you will have but little trouble about order. Keep 
your pupils on the alert by being wide-awake yourself. 

11. In general, put your questions to the whole class, in 
order to make every scholar thinlc out the answer; then, 
after a pause, call upon some one pupil to give it. 

12. Seldom repeat a question. Train your pupils to a 
habit of close attention, so that they can understand what 
you say the first time you say it. 

13. Give your slow scholars time to think and speak. 
The readiest children are not alwa^^s the soundest think- 



THE SCHOOLROOM. 93 

ers. The highest praise given by an English inspector to 
a teacher was " that he allowed his slow boys time to ivrlg- 
gle out an ansioerP 

14. ISTever repeat to the class a scholar's half -audible an- 
swer. Compel every pupil to S23eak loud enough to be 
distinctly understood by every member of the class. 

15. Explain when necessary, but make your scholars do 
a part of the talking. Your talk should consist largely of 
intelligent questions. " The best instructors," says Dies- 
terweg, an eminent German teacher, '' do not talk when 
it is the scholar's business to work ; therefore the good 
teacher is neither talkative nor taciturn. The very loorst 
teachers are those who admiTe their oivn talkP 

IG. Encourage scholars to ask questions, but do not an- 
swer them yourself until after you have given the class an 
opportunity to answer. 

17. Use tlie blackboard yourself, and make your class 
use it. " The best school," says Prof. J. S. Hart, " is 
founded upon chalk." 

18. Train your scliolars to recite in good English, but 
do not worry them by interruptions when they are speak- 
ing. Make a note of incorrect or inelegant expressions, 
and have them corrected afterwards. Do not expect chil- 
dren to speak perfect English, and do not become over- 
precise and fussy about their expressions. 

19. When pupils stand in reciting, insist upon an erect 
attitude, witli the hands clear of the desk. In reading 
and spelling, call out your classes into line, so as to secure 
a relief from long-continued sitting at desks. 

20. Seldom detain pupils after school to study imper- 
fectly recited lessons. It is a physical impossibility for a 
tired, fretting, obstinate, hungry child to do good thinking. 



94: METHODS OF TEACHING. 

21. Assign but few lessons to be learned at home. Chil- 
dren must have time to work, phn-j, eat, sleep, and grow. 
Children nnder ten years of age ought not to study at all 
out of school. 

22. Your chief business is, to oncike puj)ils tliink^ not to 
think for them ; to make them talk, not to talk for them ; 
to draw out their ^oicers, not to display your own. 

23. Point out to your scholars, in advance, the main 
facts of a lesson, so that they may not fritter away their 
time upon unimportant details. Continue this until your 
pupils learn how to discriminate for themselves between 
chaff and wheat. 

24. Before you require verbatim definitions or con- 
densed generalizations, make sure that your pupils under- 
stand what the words mean; in other words, base memo- 
rized statements upon a foundation of real conceptions. 

25. Train your scholars to hear correctly, and to repro- 
duce accurately in thought and language what has been 
told to them. " Scholars will learn well only what they 
are obliged to reproduce and tell," says Diesterweg. 

26. Keep your explanations down to the level of your 
scholars' minds. In order to do this, bear in mind your 
own feeble powers and limited attainments when you were 
no older than your pupils. A great deal of teaching 
flies " over the heads" of the pupils. You must learn to 
talk in household Anglo-Saxon, such as men use in busi- 
ness and women in the home. 

27. Eeview often and always on essentials. However 
Avell anything is learned for the time being, it will fade 
away and pass into oblivion if not called up again and 
again. Bejyetition is absolutely essential to habit, skill, 
readiness, thoroughness, and accuracy. 



THE SCHOOLKOOM. 95 

28. Do not become the slave of routine or of one inflex- 
ible mechanical system. Stick to some general purpose 
and plan, but secure the greatest possible variety of ways 
and means. 

V. METHODS IN RECITATIONS. 

1. The main objects of the recitation are : 
(1.) Instruction imparted by the teacher. 
(2.) Mental training for the pupil. 

The minor objects of the recitation are : 
(1.) To induce study. 
(2.) To test preparation. 
(3.) To cultivate expression. 
(4.) To correct errors or mistakes. 
(5.) To awaken inquiry. 

(6.) To form habits of attention, readiness, and self- 
possession. 

2. Conduct recitations sometimes by questions, and 
sometimes by topics. 

3. Make a judicious combination of oral reciting with 
written work, but avoid the modern error of making writ- 
ing-machines out of your pupils. The great advantages 
of oral over written recitations are, (1) the cultivation of 
readiness of expression, (2) that pupils learn by hearing 
one another's answers ; and (3) that the teacher becomes a 
living power in the recitation. 

4. Occasionally let your pupils question one another. 
It will do them as much good to ask a question as to an- 
swer it. 

5. It is a good plan to call for answers by making use 
of cards having the names of the class members written on 
them. If you call pupils in regular alphabetical order, or 
in the order of seats, they are apt to be somewhat inatten- 



96 METHODS OF TEACUmG. 

tive except when tlieir turn comes; if you question at 
random, you will always have a strong tendency to call on 
the best and readiest scholars, to the neglect of the poor- 
est and slowest ones. 

6. Waste as little time as possible in keeping a daily ac- 
count of recitation credits. You ought to be a teacliey\ 
not merely a recording-clerk of text-book questions and 
answers. No teacher can do his best at instructing when 
his attention is diverted by jotting down credits. The 
strong tendency in graded schools to run into excessive 
dependence upon question and answer from the text- 
books springs largely from the nndue importance at- 
tached to credits and rank in marking. Many sensitive 
girls are kept in a constant worry and fret on account of 
" checks " in recitations. A " check " is not qnite so bru- 
tal as a blow ; but the effect of its endless dropping is often 
quite as bad upon the disposition. Besides, if all the half- 
hour of recitation is spent in putting a question to each 
pupil in order to " mark " him, there is no time left to ex- 
plain or to teach. The most vital loorh done in a class 
cannot he reduced to figures. As far as practicable, sub- 
stitute the results of weekly or monthly oral reviews or 
short written examinations. But when pupils have be- 
come demoralized by working for credits for several years, 
it will not do to discontinue the plan suddenly. Continue 
to mark for some recitations, never letting your pupils 
know what recitations are to be so marked. 

Y. Pupils attend school, not merely to recite, but to be 
instructed and aided by the living teacher. Never stop 
short with hearing a lesson ; add something to it ; discuss 
it ; talk about it, even though you cannot reduce the talk 
to percentage. Go over the ground of the next advance 



THE SCIIOOLKOOM. 97 

lesson orally with your j^npils, instead of leaving tliem to 
master it alone. Tell them enough to get them inter- 
ested in it, and to lead them to discover the main points. 
" The moment yon drop the thick veil which the text-book 
interposes between yonr pupil's mind and yours," says Pro- 
fessor J. 11. Allen, "and deal with him face to face, you 
are right in the line, and are doing the work of the great 
teachers of the w^orld. It is not merely because Socrates, 
Plato, and Aristotle were great men themselves, but because 
they haj^pily lived before text-books were invented, and 
had to invent their methods as thev wxnt alona: — and test 
them, too, as they went along, by the responses they got 
from those who came to learn — that their great original 
force has so gone out upon the world of thought. It is so, 
in a modester way and in a lesser degree, as soon as we 
take the same course with them." 

8. Do not confine yourself to the printed questions of 
the text-book, and do not require your pupils to give their 
answers in the exact words of the text-book, except in the 
case of important rules and definitions which cannot be 
accurately and concisely expressed in other language than 
that of the text-book. Accept the pupiPs own statement 
if the answer is in good English and is substantially right. 

9. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, in an address to 
teachers, " If a pupil, in a proper manner, doubt the cor- 
rectness of your statement or opinion, and a discussion fol- 
low, never attempt to silence him by your mere assertion, 
but hear his reasons patiently and pleasantly. Welcome 
the doubting spirii; and the zeal in arguing that prove the 
thinker. Encourage his inquiries ; and if he convince you 
that you are wTong and that he is right, acknowledge it 
cheerfully, and — hug him." 



98 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

10. Louis Agassiz said, in his opening address to one of 
liis classes, 

" I want to make our metliod so very different that it 
may appear there is something left to be done in the sys- 
tem adopted in our public schools. I think that pupils 
are made too much to turn their attention to books, and 
the teacher is left a simple machine of study. That should 
be done away with among us. I shall never mahe you re- 
peat what you have been told^ hut constantly ash you what 
you have seen y ourselves ^ 

VI. THE MINIMUM OF RULES. 

1. Never attempt to teach ichat you do not imder stand. 

2. Never tell a child what you can malce that child tell 
you, 

3. Never give a jyiece of information without ashing the 
children to repeat it. 

4. Never use a hard word when an easy one will answer. 

5. Never mahe a rule you do not rigidly enforce. 

6. Never give an xmnecessary command. 

7. Never permit a child to remain in the class without 
something to do. 

VII. SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FOR PUPILS. 

Note. — Read these directions to your pupils, and make cacli di- 
rection tlie io\}\Q, of a short informal talk. 

1. Stand erect when reading or reciting, without touch- 
ing the desk with your hands. 

2. Open your mouth in speaking, and speak clearly, 
loudly, and distinctly. 

3. Answer in full sentences, and try to use good Eng- 
lish. 



THE SCIIOOLKOOM. 99 

4. In all examinations, whether written or oral, be hon- 
est and honorable, never prompting others, nor allowing 
others to aid you. 

5. Study, not so much for credits as for knowledge. 

6. Do not study later than eight or nine o'clock, and, 
when sick, do not study at all. 

7. For most scholars, one hour's study in the morning 
is worth two in the evening. 

8. Give your undivided attention to whatever work you 
try to do. 

9. When your eyes ache, stop studying. 

10. If you wish to become a good scholar, take care of 
your health. By a judicious interchange of work and play, 
study and recreation, avoid breaking down. 

11. Do your own work, and do not meddle with the af- 
fairs of your classmates. 

12. Remember that your success in school as well as in 
life depends mainly upon patient industry and hard work. 

13. Remember that you should learn your lessons for 
your own benefit, not because your teacher requires you 
to learn them. When you fail to do your work, you cheat, 
not your teacher, but yourself. 

VIII, DIRECTIONS ABOUT WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS. 

1. Do not be in a hurry. Take time to read every 
cpiestion carefully, so that you may be sure to answer just 
what is asked, and nothing else. 

2. Work slowly and thoughtfully. Thinh out your an- 
swers, and condense them into the fewest words jDossible. 

3. If 3^ou come to a puzzling question, pass it by until 
you have answered the rest, and then turn back to it when 
you are not pressed for time. 



100 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

4. Write neatly and legibly, and punctuate as you write. 
Separate your answers by a space, so that the examiner 
may distinguish each without confusion. 

5. After you have completed a paper, go over it careful- 
ly with reference to accuracy, expression, spelling, punctu- 
ation, and capitals. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGEADED COUNTEY SCHOOLS. 101 



Chapter YII. 
THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 

I. GENERAL REMARKS. 

It requires tact, skill, originality, and common-sense to 
manage successfully an ungraded country school. In the 
graded schools of town and city, the course of instruction 
is definitely laid down in printed manuals ; the w^ork of 
each successive grade is directed by principal and super- 
intendent ; the results are tested by written examinations ; 
and each class-teacher is only a cog in a complicated sys- 
tem of wheels. But in the country school the teacher 
combines the functions of assistant, principal, examiner, 
and superintendent. lie is an autocrat, limited only by 
custom, precedent, and text-books. 

When we consider that about one half of all the school 
children in our country receive their elementary education 
in the district schools, their importance as a part of our 
school system is obvious. Many of these schools in tlie 
sparsely settled districts are kept open only from three to 
six months in the year, and even then the attendance is 
irregular. The whole schooling of many children, from 
the age of five to fifteen, hardly amounts to four years of 
unbroken school attendance. In such schools and for such 
pupils, what instruction w^ill best fit the children for their 
life-duties ? What knowledge is of most wortli to tliem ? 
What things are essential ? 



102 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Now a man or woman gifted with sound common-sense 
will look at the work somewhat in this way : These boys 
are the sons of farmers, mechanics, miners, and working- 
men ; most of them will follow the occupations of their 
fathers. The girls — most of them — will become the wives 
of farmers, mechanics, miners, and workingmen, and will 
"keep house." What are the essential things that these 
boys and girls need to learn in order to aid them to be- 
come industrious and intelligent men and women, fitted 
for their sphere in life ? The prodigies and geniuses and 
exceptional cases are not to be taken into account at all. 

It requires decisive firmness to clear away the rubbish 
of a superficial education and get down to a solid basis. 
There is no mistaking the fact that a great deal of our 
current school education, like the ornamental tattooing of 
the South Sea Islanders, is only skin-deep, and is valuable 
only as fasliionable ornamental work. To a certain ex- 
tent, every teacher must perhaps yield to the prevailing 
customs, and decorate his pupils with educational paints 
and feathers ; but there is still some room left for the 
exercise of sound judgment. As an axiom, we may safe- 
ly take this statement of John Stuart Mill : The aim of 

ALL INTELLECTUAL TRAINING FOR THE MASS OF THE PEOPLE 
SHOULD BE TO CULTIVATE COMMON-SENSE. 

In the country school leave untouched the things 3^ou 
have not time to teach nor your pupils the talents to learn. 
Leave out a smattering of non-essentials, in order that your 
scholars may be thorough in essentials. 

" There can be no other curricular arrangement," says 
Bain, "even for the laboring population, than to give 
them as much methodized knowledge of the physical and 
the moral -world, and as much literary training, as their 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 103 

time will allow. About two thirds of the clay, as a rule, 
might be given to knowledge, and one third to literature 
— music, drill, and gymnastics being counted apart from 
both." 

II. THINGS ESSENTIAL. 

1. Pitpils must he trained to read and wHte their mother- 
tongiie correctly. 

Teach them to do this so that every scholar, at fifteen 
years of age, shall be able to read a newspaper readily ; 
shall be able to spell common words correctly; shall be 
able to converse free from provincialisms in pronuncia- 
tion ; shall be able to write a legible letter in correct Eng- 
lish. In reading, teach them not merely to pronounce 
w^ords, but to get at the meaning of what they read. 
There must be no sham scholarship here. Good spelling 
is a conventional test of education, and even a spelling- 
lesson may be made the means of valuable mental train- 
ing. 

2. Theij must he trained^ in arithmetic .^ to ivorTc, accurate- 
ly and readily^ examj)les in the ''four rides ;" to worh hus- 
iness examples in common and decimal fractions ; to recJcon 
simple interest ; and to write hills, receipts, and promissory 
notes. 

In most country schools the pupils throw away a great 
deal of time in "going through," term after term, bulky 
text-books on aritlimetic, filled to repletion with school- 
masters' puzzles about things unknown in real life, and 
crammed with technical "rules," which are learned only 
to be forgotten. Concentrate your drill upon tiie four 
rules, fractions, the tables, and interest, and thus give your 
pu2:)ils the mental training which will enable them to do 
a few essential things skilfully, accurately, and readily. 



lOtt METHODS OF TEACHING. 

'None of your pupils need to study sncli sclioolmasterisms 
as " allegation," " duodecimals," " circulating decimals," 
" permutation," " single and double position ;" and few 
except the big boys who have nothing else to do need 
waste time upon "compound proportion," "reduction as- 
cending and descending," "true discount," "bonds," "ex- 
change," " insurance," "equation of payments," "partner- 
ship," "arithmetical progression," "geometrical progres- 
sion," " custom-house business," " annuities," etc. Omit 
these, and you may find time to give short lessons in the 
elements of natural science, and to open the eyes of your 
pupils to the wonders of the world around them. 

It is true that many country schoolmasters still contend 
that the reasoning faculties of a pupil cannot be properly 
disciplined unless he devotes half his school-days to ab- 
struse logical analysis, as tliey choose to call it, of use- 
less problems, worse than Chinese puzzles, involving only 
blind adherence to rule, or still blinder imitation ; but tlie 
real truth is that mental discipline in the study of arith- 
metic is not one wdiit more valuable than is hard think- 
ing upon other school studies. 

No mental work of any kind, rightly done, is utterly 
useless; but the real question is, not what is (/ood, but 
what, under the circumstances, is hest, and hoiv much, and 
when. " Get your discipline," says Chadbourne, " by do- 
ing a greater amount of work, and doing it in better style." 
A wealthy merchant once set his son to wheeling stones 
from one corner of his garden to the other, in order to train 
him to work. He was wiser than the man who never makes 
his boy work at all ; but he would have been wiser still 
had he kept his son at work sawing wood or laying out a 
garden, or weeding the onion-bed or hoeing potatoes. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 105 

/ ISTow in country schools, a great many boys and girls 
are kept at wheeling educational stones. A teacher who 
keeps young pupils at work, term after term, upon com- 
plex or puzzling problems in mental arithmetic, repeating 
long-drawn-out formulas in logical analysis, including 
statement, solution, and conclusion, before they have ac- 
quired readiness and accuracy in addition and multipli- 
cation, is only making them wheel stones. A country 
teacher who neglects " the four rules " and " the tables " 
in order to train big country boys upon a normal-school 
analytical demonstration of the reason for inverting the 
divisor in division of fractions is wheeling stones ; and if, 
added to this, he requires allegation, exchange, and pro- 
gression, he is wheeling glacial boulders. Avoid making 
a hobby of arithmetic and algebra. Two hundred years 
ago, Roger Ascham, in The ScJiolemader, wrote as fol- 
lows : " Mark all Mathematical heads, which be only and 
wholly bent to those Sciences, how solitary they be them- 
selves, how unlit to live with others, and how unapt to 
serve in the world." And a modern educator. Superin- 
tendent Eliot, of Boston, says now, "A faculty to be called 
out by the knowledge of numbers and their relations is 
too often stupefied by the drugs substituted for them." 

In his unsurpassed paper on Waste of Lahoi' in the Worli, 
of Education^ President Chadbourne truthfully says, 

" The principle of dealing with essentials mainly should 
prevail in all the work of education. We have too much 
to do to spend time fooling over complicated arithmetical 
puzzles wdiich abound in some books — questions which no 
one should undertake to solve till w^ell versed in algebra 
and geometry. At the proper stage of education, such 
puzzles, which are a discouragement to tlie young scholar. 



lOG METHODS OF TEACHING. 

because lie thinks them essential to tlie subject, will be 
solved in the natural progress of his work. They are an 
annoyance and discouragement simply because they are 
introduced before their time, before the study of the prin- 
ciples on which their solution depends." 

3. They should acquire a good general knowledge of 
geograjyJnj. 

In order to do this, it is not at all necessary that boys 
and girls should be compelled, day after day, and term 
after term, and year after year, to memorize the dreary 
pages of " map questions " that crowd the three padded 
books in a series of geographies. If any teachers of coun- 
try schools, or indeed of any schools anywhere on this 
planet, require their pupils to learn by heart one tenth of 
the boundaries, cities, towns, villages, rivers, mountains, 
capes, bays, and microscopic bits of topography included 
under tlie head of "Map Lessons" in the books; or to 
learn by rote one twentieth of the stereotyped descrip- 
tions of countries and their inhabitants; or one hun- 
dredth of the dry census statistics of the States even of 
our own country about bushels of corn, wheat, rye, barley, 
oats, beans, pease, and potatoes ; or the value of the annual 
crops of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, hemp, and hay; or 
the value of manufactured articles, such as boots and shoes, 
cotton cloth, hardware ; or the annual catch of mackerel 
and codfish — statistics in wdiich text-books abound — such 
teachers ought to be indicted for a lack of common-sense. 
1^0 reasonable human being expects even a schoolmaster, 
who has studied and taught geography half a lifetime, 
to know, without looking on the book, the entire returns 
of the last census, or the exact population of every city 
in the world, or the length of every river, or the height 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 107 

in feet of every mountain-peak, or the boundary-line of 
every State in the Union and every country in tlie world, 
or the exact distance in miles from Ujiji to Walla-Walla. 
Is it reasonable, then, to attempt to make boys and girls 
master this chaos of facts? The plain truth is that no 
small part of what children are forced to cram at school, 
not only in geography, but also in other branches, might 
appropriately be labelled Things Worth Forgetting ! 
i^ature is wiser than teachers and text-book-makers ; she 
casts off the dead and waste matter and saves the child. 

Cut out of your text-book on geography, then, all but 
essentials. Cross out all local State geograj^hy except that 
of the pupil's own State. 

Read the descriptive text, and mark, now and then, 
something to be put away in the storehouse of memory. 
Use the scalpel with merciless severity. " It takes a brave 
man," says President Chadbourne, '' one merciless to him- 
self, to make a small, simple, but thorough text-book; but 
such text-books we must have, if we use them at all." 

4. TJiey should he tTciined in writing and in siicaking 
good English^ and. sJioidA learn the elements of grammar. 

The technical study of grammar should be preceded by 
a course of elementary exercises in " Language Lessons," 
such as are found in modern text-books, notably in Swin- 
ton's Language Primer. Children learn to swim by try- 
ing to swim, to skate by skating, to talk by talking, and 
to write by writing. They cannot be trained to speak or 
to write correctly by parsing according to Latinized for- 
mulas. They will never learn to construct a good sen- 
tence by analyzing complex or compound sentences, or 
by memorizing and repeating the rules of syntax, though 
this method be followed until they grow gray. 



108 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Require at least two short composition exercises a week, 
on slates or paper, upon subjects about wliicli the pupils 
hiow something. 

Let them write about farming, about animals, birds, 
fishes, flowers, trees. Read them short stories, and require 
them to be reproduced in writing. Let them write short 
biographical sketches of great men. Let them make com- 
positions about their history and geography lessons ; and 
then let the older pupils correct the compositions of the 
younger ones, and the younger ones read those of the 
older ones as models. 

"Nothing is of more value in education," says Biixton, 
"than this, to make a point of opening the child's eyes to 
take an interest in the world around him. Teach him, if 
a country boy, to know the birds, their nests, eggs, and 
notes; the wild animals, their haunts and habits; the do- 
mestic animals, their nature, peculiarities, and various 
breeds; the flowers; the trees; the insects; the different 
soils. You can do this at mere odds and ends of time, 
and 3'Ou have opened springs of pure enjoyment in his 
soul." 

Require all pupils over eight years of age to WTite at 
least one short letter a week, until they can write it in 
due form, punctuate it, capitalize it, spell correctly every 
word they use in it, fold it neatly, and direct it. In ad- 
dition to this, pupils over twelve years of age ought to be 
able to express their thoughts in well -constructed sen- 
tences. After this is done, let the big boys and girls take 
to parsing and analysis, which are good enough exercises 
at the right time. From a text-book let them learn the 
chief "rules of syntax" and the technical distinctions of 
etymology. If the text-book in use is a good one, omit 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGKADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 109 

two thirds of it, and give out the remainder in substantial 
lessons to be learned by heart ;• if it be a poor one, of the 
antique Latinized type, deal it out in homoeopathic doses. 

5. They should have a good general hiowledge of the 
leading events in the history of our own country. 

But do not compel the memorizing of three or four 
hundred pages of dates and details which no teacher liv- 
ing could stow into his head in a lifetime, and which, if 
learned, would be next to worthless. Let your pupils 
read the text-book aloud in the class ; then it is your 
business to winnow out the three grains of wlieat from 
the bushel of chaff, and tell tliem wdiat to mark as fit to 
be learned. You mnst supplement the text-book with 
stories, anecdotes, incidents, and w^ ell - selected extracts. 
Make use of the school library as an assistant. The real 
spirit of history does not consist in dates and details. 
"My grandfather's stories about his service as a private 
in the Revolutionary war," said a noted teacher, " made 
history a living reality to me." 

Narrative and biography make the life of history to 
the young. 

6. They ought to he trained to hahits of careful obser- 
vation ; or, in other words, they ought to acquire some 
Tcnowledge of common things in the 2)henomena of nat- 
ure. 

And right here the good teacher will do his best w^ork, 
drawing out of his young pupils all they know of the 
world around them, directing their attention, indicating 
relations and harmonies, and encouraging every effort to 
increase their knowledge. Here the teacher is everything, 
books nothing. " We teach too much by manuals ; too 
little by direct intercourse with the pupil's mind ; we 



110 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

]iave too nmcli of words, too little of things," said Daniel 
Webster, who, though but a short time a teacher, well 
imderstood the American school system. Excite in yonr 
pupils a burning desire to learn ; inspire them w^ith mo- 
tives. " The primary principle of education," says Sir 
William Hamilton, " is the determination of the pupil to 
self-activity." 

7. lliey mitst learn to practise the jprinci])les and jpre- 
cepts of morality. 

It is not necessary that they study ethics as a science, or 
religion as theology. AVhat they most need is that plain 
preceptive morality which is diffused among the people 
as their best rules of action in their daily life. You can- 
not mould character or form good habits by dealing out 
hackneyed commonplaces, or by merely repeating maxims. 
The art cannot be conveyed to you in condensed direc- 
tions or taught in twelve easy lessons. It must be an 
outgrowth of your own life and character, your own ob- 
servation and experience combined with the best thoughts 
you glean from books and men. 

III. MISCELLANEOUS THINGS. 

Physiology is not an essential text-book studj^ but it is 
necessary that your pupils should know something about 
the laws of health in relation to diet, sleep, air, exercise, 
work, play, and rest. Teach your pupils that sickness is 
the penalty of violated laws ; that bad liabits are physical 
sins; that bad health, unless hereditary, is the result of 
carelessness or ignorance. All this you can do without 
a text-book. 

For the right training of the perceptive faculties, you 
must give elementary lessons in physics, botany, and other 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTEY SCHOOLS. 11.1 

natural sciences. Country boys and girls generally have 
a considerable stock of crude knowledge, picked up em- 
pirically by their own observation, about animals, plants, 
and the phenomena of every-day life. Draw out this 
fragmentary store of facts, and supplement it by the facts 
of science. Set the girls to collecting and pressing flow- 
ers. Let the boys bring in specimens of minerals, shells, 
woods, and grains for a school cabinet. Open their eyes 
to the harmonies of nature. Teachers are apt to deal too 
much with books and too little with things; they mistake 
shadow for substance. Do not depend too much on me- 
chanical " mental discij)line,*' or too little on direct infor- 
mation. A great part of teaching is avowedly empirical, 
desultory, utilitarian. To acquire information is a mental 
exercise of no mean order. If you can only find out the 
secret, you can make your whole school alive to hioio ; 
but the secret cannot be conveyed in set rules. If you 
are nothing but a bookworm, you will never learn the 
art. 

If possible, have some singing, and drawing for those 
who have any taste for it. If there is a school library, 
make good use of it by selecting suitable books for your 
pupils to read, and by questioning them about what tliey 
read. Many a dull boy, lazy and listless over his lessons, 
has been made alive by good story-books. If you have 
tact, good-nature, and firmness, you need not have much 
trouble about order, discipline,, or government. Win the 
good- will of the older scholars, and they will become your 
assistants in governing. 

Keep in mind this central fact, that in country schools 
certain leading results must be obtained, even at the sacri- 
fice of ornament and system. Only concentration can 



112 METHODS OF TEACniNG. 

give strength. Make your pupils learn well the things 
they most iieed in the common walks of life, without re- 
gard to changes in educational fashions. Feathers and 
finery you do not need. Do not waste your time in 
striving after the impossible. You cannot, however hard 
you may try, educate beyond the barriers fixed by nature 
and surrounding circumstances. You will find some slow 
scholars, and some dull ones; some with strong latent 
powers, and others the reverse ; some stubborn and others 
pliant, some good and others bad. If you are gifted with 
sound judgment and good common-sense, you will work 
on calmly, faithfully, hopefully, good-naturedly, disciplin- 
ing the troublesome, taming the savage, bearing in mind 
that all the dull boys and careless girls will, somehow or 
other, grow up into better men and women than you dare 
hope for. Take comfort from the words that quaint old 
Thomas Fuller wrote two centuries ago : 

" Wines, the stronger they be, the more lees they have 
when they are new. Many boys are muddy-headed till 
they be clarified with age ; and such afterwards proved the 
best. Bristol diamonds are both bright and squared and 
pointed by nature, and yet are soft and worthless ; whereas 
Orient ones in India are rough and rugged naturally. 
Hard, rugged, and dull natures in youth acquit themselves 
afterwards the jewels of the country ; and therefore their 
dulness at first is to be borne with, if they be diligent. 
The schoolmaster deserves to be beaten himself who beats 
nature in a boy for a fault. And I question whether all 
tlie whipping in the world can make their parts who are 
naturally sluggish rise one minute before the hour nature 
hath appointed. All the whetting in the world can never 
set a razor's edge on that which hath no steel in it." 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS, 113 

Add this consolatory statement by Emerson : " Nature 
makes fifty poor melons for one that is good, and shakes 
down a tree-full of gnarled, wormy, unripe crabs, before 
you can find a dozen dessert apples." 

IV. MINOR MATTERS. 

The arrangement and length of recitations are matters 
of judgment to be modified according to conditions. 
When one class is reciting, set the others about some spe- 
cific piece of work at their desks. The very youngest 
children should have tw^o short reading and spelling les- 
sons daily ; the middle classes one lesson, and the highest 
class two lessons, a w^eek. It is poor economy to hear 
your advanced classes recite daily lessons in all their 
studies. The few advanced pupils ought not to monopo- 
lize your attention. Assign all your older pupils good 
solid lessons to be learned at home ; for children who at- 
tend school only a part of the year cannot easily be over- 
taxed with brain -work. Train them to depend upon 
themselves, and to find out things by hard thinking. In 
recitations, your explanations and illustrations must be 
condensed, for your time is limited. It is one of the de- 
fects of graded city schools that teachers talk too much 
and do most of the thinking for their pupils. Country 
scholars who enter the city high -school generally come 
out ahead because they have habits of self-reliance, and 
know how to learn from books. 

Give the children under eight years of age long recesses 
for play ; they ought not to be shut up in school more 
than two or three hours a day. In pleasant weather, after 
they read and spell, turn them out of doors. 

When you take charge of a nev/ school, adopt, at first. 



lltt METHODS OF TEACHING. 

the classification and order of exercises of your predeces- 
sor; if changes are needed, make them by degrees after 
you know the needs of the schooL Beware of turning 
your pupils back to the "beginning of the book," as if 
you took it for granted they knew nothing at alL Hather, 
let them go on, and review when necessary. Still, if you 
happen to find a set of scholars taught by unskilled 
"school-keepers," you must act on this axiom from the 
great German educator I^iemeyer, "Pupils who have 
been injured by wrong modes of instruction, and by 
an injurious multiplicity of studies, must be taught in 
almost all the elementary branches as if they were hefjin- 
nersP 

On the morning of the first day, that crucial test of the 
teacher, introduce yourself by a few good-natured remarks, 
distribute slips of paper on which the scholars are to write 
their names, age, class, and studies, and, having collected 
these, proceed at once to business by giving out a sheet 
of paper to all who can use a pen, and requiring them to 
write a composition about their last vacation. This will 
keep them at work an hour at least, during Vvdiich time 
you can attend to the little ones, and make out your rough 
programme. The art of the first day is to keep your 
scholars busy. You will avoid much mischief by getting 
everybody hard at work in ten minutes after school opens. 
If you know how to tell a good story, close school ^vith 
one ; if not, read one from some book. 

Make no reflections on the former teacher, and allow 
none to be made by your scholars. If the people of your 
district are old-fashioned, introduce normal-school meth- 
ods by degrees after 3'ou have won over your pupils. Be 
careful of what you say ; any inadvertent remark made 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTKY SCHOOLS. 115 

in a moment of passion will be taken home by twenty 
tongues, and discussed in cold blood at twenty family 
supper-tables. A short call at the homes of your pupils 
will convince the old folks that the young teacher "isn't 
stuck up," will disarm prejudice, and conciliate the 3^oung 
folks. 

Find out the two or three rulino: families of the neis-li- 
borhood, and make friends of them. Attend social gath- 
erings whenever you are invited ; the young folks like a 
human teacher. Bring the public opinion of the district 
over to your side, and you cannot make a failure in 
school. 

V. ADVANTAGES OF COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 

For a young teacher, whether man or woman, there is 
no better school of practice than an ungraded country 
school. Nor should its educational advantages for pupils 
be underrated. In the long race of life, boys educated 
in country schools do actually come out ahead of those 
ground out by the graded machinery of the city school. 
Perhaps one reason for this is that the country boy com- 
bines physical training with mental. During a part of 
the year, he works on the farm, and gets, not only muscu- 
lar strength, hut a habit of loorJc. He goes back to school 
with a keen relish for study, and a habit of steady appli- 
cation. One day of hard work at ditching in his father's 
meadow made John Adams begin to be a good student 
of Latin. Hard work on his father's farm, from sunrise 
to sunset, hoeing corn, or haying, or digging potatoes, has 
made school-life seem a play-spell to many a bo}^, and has 
laid the foundation of habits that have led to brilliant suc- 
cess in mental w^ork. The trouble with most city boys is 
that they have no work to do out of school, and they never 



116 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

learn what labor means until school life is over. My ob- 
servation as princii^al of an evening school of a thousand 
boys, for three years, convinced me that many of the boys 
made quite as rapid progress in the essential branches as 
did tlic boys of the day schools. The evening -school 
boys had a steadiness of purpose unknown to boys un- 
trained to labor. Professor Eunkle, of Boston, says, " So 
far from interfering with intellectual culture, industrial 
culture really lends to it a powerful support by strength- 
ening the character and developing the moral energies. It 
is upon these moral energies that the entire value of hu- 
man character dej^ends." 

^' It takes more than a mere knowledge of books," saj^s 
Superintendent Wickersliam, " to make a useful member 
of society. We must so modify our system of instruction 
as to send out. instead, large classes of young people fitted 
for trades, and willing and able to worJc. 

Herein lies the great advantage of the country school : 
both boys and girls have a combination of mental and 
physical exercise. The morning and evening "chores" 
on the farm and in the household prevent undue mental 
exertion. They are not surfeited with school and books ; 
scliool, indeed, is a relief from hard labor. Better six 
months' scliooling in earnest than ten months of unwilling 
dawdling. For one, I am thankful that I was trained to 
habits of hard work in my boyhood, and went to a coun- 
try school where I was not crammed with studies or 
worried with credits, or made wretched with written ex- 
aminations. 

If, for the teacher, the country scliool has its dark side 
in low wages or lack of society, it has also its bright side 
in contrast with the great schools of the towns and cities. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGRADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 117 

To show this, let me give you an encouraging thought 
from Professor William Ilussell, whose w^orcls, after a 
lapse of thirty years, still linger lovingly in my ears : 

"A mind accustomed to large views, and w^orking on 
broad principles, will, unconsciously and necessarily, adopt 
methods correspondent, and will radiate, from its own ac- 
tion, light and truth throughout the sphere of its influ- 
ence. Nowhere is this statement more strikingly verified 
than in the case of an intelligent teacher, in the direction 
and instruction of an elementary school. It is in this 
sphere that ingenuity and tact, and originality and skill, 
are most needed, in endeavors to develop intellectual ca- 
pabilities and build up the great fabric of mental power. 
Nowhere else, in the whole field of education, is the de- 
mand so urgent for a thorough insight into the nature and 
working of the mind, for the light to guide its advances, 
or the power to mould its expanding character." 

VI. CONDENSED DIRECTIONS. 

1. The true economy of teaching an ungraded school is 
to make the fewest possible number of classes, and to con- 
sider both age and capacity in making your classification. 

2. If your school is a large one, do not attempt to hear 
daily recitations in everything, but alternate the studies of 
the more advanced pupils. 

3. When they are not reciting, assign 3^our classes text- 
book lessons or some piece of definite work on slates or 
blackboards. 

4. Economize time and instruction by means of as many 
general exercises as possible, in which all except the 
youngest pupils can join ; such as drill exercises in the 
four rules of arithmetic, mental-arithmetic examples, the 



118 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

spelling of common words, abstracts in composition, re- 
view questions on the leading facts of geograph}^, etc. To 
do this will require tact and forethought; but when well 
done, it is invaluable. 

5. Take an hour, weekly, for select readings, dialogues, 
and lessons on morals and manners. You can tire a whole 
school with enthusiasm for good by reading the right 
kind of stories. 

6. Occasionally give your classes a written examination. 
In most city schools, written examinations are carried to 
great extremes ; but in most country schools there is not 
enough of written work to give readiness and exactness 
in the written expression of thought. 

7. Train your older pupils to correct and credit the 
papers of the younger ones, and let the oldest girls phiy 
teacher occasionally. 

8. If you are a woman, give your girls occasional talks 
on domestic economy. Buy some sensible book on the 
subject and lend it to them. A great many homes are 
poorly kept on account of ignorance. Huxley says, " I 
put instruction in the elements of household work and of 
domestic economy next in order to physical training." 
" Knowledge of domestic economy," says Kingsley, " saves 
income." 

9. If you are a man, take some interest in the home- 
work of your boys. Instil into their minds the necessity 
of labor for every human being. Point out to them the 
life-long value of being trained in boyhood to habits of 
regular employment in useful labor. Many a boy on a 
farm complains of his hard lot when he is really being 
blessed by hard labor. A wise teacher can often set him 
right in his notions. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF UNGEADED COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 119 

10. Endeavor to make your school the district centre 
of civility, politeness, and good manners. If they learn 
good-breeding at all, many pupils must learn it at school. 
There is no limit to the civilizing influence of a gentle 
woman or a gentlemanly man in a country school. Send 
out your pupils with the seal of honor and truthfulness. 

11. Persnade the parents to visit your school even if 
yon have to do so by means of exhibitions in which their 
children take a part. 

12. Eemember that school trustees are your legal su- 
periors in office. Argne with them, persuade and con- 
vince them if you can, but do not contradict them. 

13. Bear in mind that though you may have more 
" book-learning " than most of the men and women in a 
country district, there are sure to be many parents who 
are your superiors in sound sense, in judgment, and in a 
knowledge of the solid facts of human life. 

14. Before you begin school, if possible, call a meeting 
of the "trustees," or "committee." Talk over matters 
with them, ask their advice, and tell them your plans. It 
is well to go into a new school backed by the weight of 
official power. 

15. Whenever you have any unusual cases of discipline, 
consult the trustees or the parents hefore you take action. 

IG. The following may be taken for practical guidance 
in your course of instruction : 

A child of average mental powers ought to be able, on 
leaving school at fifteen years of age — 

1. To read well and spell well. 

2. To write a neat and legible hand. 

3. To know the main points in the geography of the 
world, and the leading events in our country's history. 



120 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

4. To speak correct English and to write readily a well- 
expressed letter of business or friendship. 

5. To work accurately any plain business questions in- 
volving the four rules, common and decimal fractions, and 
simple interest. 



PART 11. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING COMMON- 
• SCHOOL ESSENTIALS. 



Chapter I. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

I. '•' The aim of all intellectual training for the mass of 
the people should be to cultivate common-sense, to qual- 
ify them for forming a sound practical judgment of the 
circumstances by which they are surrounded." — John 
Btuart Kill, 

II. " The intellectual training to be given in the ele- 
mentary schools must, of course, in the first place, consist 
in learning to use the means of acquiring knowledge, or 
reading, waiting, and arithmetic ; and it will be a great 
matter to teach reading so completely that the act shall 
have become easy and pleasant. 

" But along with a dne proficiency in the use of the 
means of learning, a certain amount of knowledge, of in- 
tellectual discipline, and of artistic training should be con- 
veyed in the elementary schools ; and in this direction I 
can conceive no subject-matter of education so appropri- 
ate and so important as the rudiments of pliysical science, 
with drawing, modelling, and singing."— -i^^^Z<?y. 

G 



122 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

III. " All educational course may be packed so full of 
work that one piece crushes out another ; so many books 
to be gone over, so many pages to be taken at a lesson, so 
many exercises of all sorts to be attempted, if not accom- 
plished; and then the pressure is the obstacle against 
which both teachers and taught beat until they are often 
pitifully bruised." — Sujperintendent Eliot 

TV. " Worth belongs to any subject of study if it con- 
veys methods that are useful far beyond itself. The sci- 
ences that embody an organization for aiding the mind 
— whether in deductive method, such as geometry and 
physico-mathematical science; in observation and induc- 
tion, as the physical sciences; or in classification, as in 
the natural - history sciences — would on these grounds 
alone be admitted to the higher circle of mental disci- 
pline or training, irrespective of the value of the facts 
and principles viewed separately or in detail. It depends 
partly on the teacher and partly on the scholar whether 
the element of method shall stand forth and extend itself, 
or whether the subjects shall only yield their own quan- 
tum of matter or information. ... In estimating the value 
of a branch of study, we must consider not merely what 
it gives us, but what, through engrossment of our time, it 
deprives us of." — Bain^s Education as a Science. 



CONDENSED DtKECTIONS FOR TEACHING KEADING. 123 



Chapter II. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING READING. 

* 1. Teach beginners by a judicious combination of the 
word method, phonic method, and spelhng method. Af- 
ter learning to call a limited number of words at sight, 
the methods practically run together, and the difference 
is so little apparent that no one method need be made a 
hobby of. 

2. Make use of the school chart, the Primer, or First 
Header, and the blackboard : best of all is the blackboard. 
Make the letters, and let your ]3upils try to imitate you. 
"Write or print words, and let your scholars do the same. 

3. Lessons for beginners should be very short, not ex- 
ceeding ten minutes in length. 

4. Give patient and long-continued attention to the cor- 
rection of slovenly and incorrect pronunciation, both in 
spoken language and in reading from the book. 

5. Give special attention to drill on the elementary 
sounds, both vowel and consonant. The sounds of the 
letters must be taught with their names. Take frequent 
concert exercises in vocal culture, including drill on force, 
pitch, movement, and inflection, in order to bring out the 
voices of timid pupils, and to secure flexibility of the or- 
gans of speech. 

6. Call out your reading classes into line. Train pupils 
to stand erect, and to hold the book in the left hand. 



124 METHODS OF TE ARCHING. 

7. Train pnj)ils to open the mouth freely. This may 
be done by long-continued concert drill on the vowel 
sounds, such as a in arrii^ or a in all. There can be no 
good reading with the teeth and lips half closed. 

8. Train pupils, not only to call w^ords, but also to think 
about the meaning of what they read. " The great and 
almost universal fault in teaching reading," says Superin- 
tendent Philbrick, "is the too great neglect of attention 
to the sense of wdiat is read." "Even long after a child 
can read," says Bain, "it is unable to extract much infor- 
mation from books." Hence the need of the teacher's 
assistance. 

9. Question pupils upon what they read. By con- 
versation with them upon the subject of the lesson, en- 
deavor to make it interesting and instructive. "VYlien they 
thoroughly understand what they read, and have a real 
appreciation of the subject, they will read naturally and 
with correct emphasis and inflection. The teacher may 
read a piece to let his pupils perceive how, by a natural 
tone and correct emphasis and inflection, he brings out 
the meaning; but he must carefully avoid training his 
pupils to imitate him. They must read w^ell of them- 
selves, because they understand and appreciate the sub- 
ject ; they must never read as parrots. 

10. In order to secure close attention to the reading- 
lesson, require pupils to copy one paragraph, at least, of 
every lesson. Continue this even in the higher grades, as 
an aid in punctuation and spelling as well as in reading. 

' 11. When the lesson is a suitable one, let pupils close 
their books, and tell from memory, in their own words, 
the substance of the piece. Occasionally require a writ- 
ten abstract of some suitable storv. 



CONDENSED DIEECTIONS FOR TEACIIINa READING. 125 

12. Eead aloud to younger classes every advance lesson. 
Explain the meaning of difficult or unusual words. In 
tliis way, it is possible for pupils to (jet the sense of lohcit 
they read. 

13. Make a list of words that pupils most frequently 
mispronounce, and drill your pupils in the correct pronun- 
ciation of these words. It is not enough to tell a pupil 
of a fault he commits ; make him correct it himself. Put 
an instant stojo to screaming, shouting, or drawling. 

14. Occasionally take a spelling-lesson from the read- 
ing - lesson, but do not mix up spelling and reading to- 
gether. " To make the child spell all the time lie is read- 
ing," says Superintendent Eliot, "is like tripping him 
when we would have him walk. Spelling is to be jDrac- 
tised at the outset only so far as it is a help to reading; 
but it never should have the lion's share it has long 
claimed in our teaching." 

15. Train your classes daily, the higher grade as well as 
the lower, in some one of the following exercises in vocal 
culture : 

1. Attitude. 4. Articulation. 

2. Breathing. 5. Enunciation. 

3. Yowel sounds. 6. Pronunciation. 

16. Breathing exercises are of great value as an aid in 
securing an erect attitude and the free use of the vocal 
organs. Introduce every lesson with a short drill. Train 
3^our pupils to keep their lungs well filled with air, and to 
breathe often while reading. 

17. In all classes, from the highest to the lowest, give fre- 
quent and thorough drill uj^on words containing the vowel 
sounds, properly grouped and arranged. Pay special at- 
tention to those sounds which children in some parts of 



126 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

our country are apt to give incorrectly : such as a in half, 
calf, laugh, etc. ; intermediate a, as in ask, last, past, after, 
etc. ; 10 after 7\ as in true, rude, fruit, etc. ; u as in tube, 
tune, etc. ; o as in do, two, etc. ; c> as in road, coat, etc. The 
school is the proper place for correcting provincialisms in 
pronunciation. 

18. Do not allow children to pronounce the words one 
by one, slowly and monotonously. From the first, pay 
particular attention to the much-abused articles a and the. 
These should be read as if they formed a syllable of the 
following word : as, a-booh\ a-hat\ just as a is sounded in 
around', along' — the sound of a slightly obscured and 
shortened, not the sound of u in hut. So, also, " the book" 
is sounded thu-ljooh\ not " the' book'" nor " thur' -booh' .''^ 
Pupils from the outset should be taught to read in 2?hrases : 
as, The-poor-man, had-on-his-head, a-white-hat. 

19. In the primary classes, teach pupils at least the dic- 
tionary notation of the long and the short vowel sounds ; 
and, in the grammar grades, explain, by blackboard drill, 
the entire notation of the school dictionary in use, so that 
pupils may be able to find out for themselves the correct 
pronunciation of words. Train your pupils to refer to 
the dictionary for definitions as well as pronunciation. 

20. Avoid the extreme of a high-pitched, sharp, piercing, 
unnatural school-tone, as well as the other extreme of fee- 
bleness and indistinctness. The following will indicate 
a good standard of force and loudness in school reading : 

livery soliolar must read so that every other memher of 
the class can easily hear every ivord loithoiit looTcing at the 
took. 

In order to determine this standard, listen to the read- 
ing without a book in your hands, and occasionally let 



CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACIIINa READING. 127 

your pupils close their books while one of their number is 
reading. 

21. In a graded class of fifty pnjDils, it is desirable to 
train the whole class together a part of the time ; but some- 
times it is best to divide the class into sections of ten each, 
taking one section at a time, and allowing the others to 
study a spelling-lesson or to write a composition. 

22. In grammar-grade classes, make reading-lessons the 
basis of exercises in grammar and composition, but take 
them as exercises distinct from the mere act of reading 
aloud. [See Part III., "Heading."] In one lesson let the 
pupils find out all the nouns, in another the verbs, and 
in a third every pronoun, etc. In one lesson confine the 
attention of pupils to phrases^ in one to clauses^ and in 
another to simple, complex, or compound sentences. In 
one lesson call attention to nothing but the use of capi- 
tals, in one to the use of the period, and in another of 
the comma. The interest and success of these lessons 
depend on the principle of taking one thing at a time. 
Then let your pupils copy the whole or a part of a les- 
son from the open book, and, next, require them to write 
what they can of it from memory. 

23. In order to prevent monotony, occasionally carry 
into school a good story book or paper, such as The 
Nursery^ Ilarjper's Young Peoj}le, jEso^p's Fables, St. 
Nicholas, Robinson Crusoe, etc., and fi-om that let each 
pupil, in turn, read a paragraph or page while the others 
listen. Such an exercise, rightly managed, will kindle an 
interest in the deadest class ever fossilized under the 
steady dropping of the old-style reading-lesson. 

21. Let the older scholars occasionally read something 
from their scrap-books. When you find an exceedingly 



128 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

interesting story or anecdote in the newspaper suitable 
for school use, clip it out, cut it up into short paragraphs ; 
paste these upon card-board slips, number them, distribute 
them to your class, and let each pupil read one slip. 

25. The speaking of dialogues is a material aid in se- 
curing naturalness in reading. The reading or recitation 
of short selections of poetry also forms a part of reading 
culture. 

26. In order to fix and hold the attention, occasionally 
let each pupil read only one line of poetry or j)rose, around 
the class, until the lesson is finished. Again, let each 
scholar read only one word. 

27. For concert reading, sometimes divide your class 
into small sections of four, six, or ten pupils each, and 
then match one against another to see which reads the 
best. 

28. Do not allow a scholar, when reading, to be inter- 
rupted by corrections, or made nervous by upraised hands. 
Let the corrections be made after the reading. 

29. Do not be too critical yourself, and do not allow 
class criticism to run into needless fault-finding. Be more 
w^atchful to commend good reading than to criticise poor 
reading. 

30. Once in a while, let the scholars choose sides and 
make up a reading-match, every one who makes any mis- 
take to be seated. 

31. The pupils of all the higher-grade classes should be 
trained to lift their eyes from the book and look at the 
teacher or the class. In order to do this, the eye must 
anticipate the voice, taking in the last part of the sen- 
tence, so that it can be uttered while the reader is looking 
at his listeners. 



CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING READING. 129 

32. " The iuvestigation of tlie reading - lesson," sajs 
Currie, ''forms the highest exercise of connected think- 
ing in the common-school, and, if judiciously conducted, 
ought to contribute very much to the habit of reflective 
reading in after-life." 

33. As ninety-nine hundredths of all the reading done 
by men and women is done silently and mentally^ it is 
evident that the main purpose of the teacher, in all the 
higher -grade classes, should be to train pupils to thinh 
when reading, and to gather %ij^ all the thoughts of the 
writeT from the printed jpage. 

34. '' Systematio reading^'' says Kussell, "is a valued 
means for cultivating reflective habits of mind ; reading 
which is study, not pericsal; reading wdiich is attentively 
done, carefully reviewed, exactly recorded, or orally re- 
counted. Memoiy, under such discipline, becomes thor- 
oughly retentive, information exact, judgment correct, 
conception clear, thought copious, and expression ready 
and appropriate." 

35. Every school library ought to contain several sets of 
school Eeaders, to supplement those in the hands of the 
pupils. When scholars have read through their own 
books, the new ones will excite a fresh interest. Besides, 
in all except the lowest classes, an intelligent child \^ill 
extract most of the information worth anything, from an 
ordinary class-book, in less than sixty days. "^Ro one 
thing," says Horace Mann, "will contribute more to in- 
telligent reading than a well-selected school library." 

II. QUOTATIONS FROM EDUCATORS. 

L " If teacliers will cease to require little children to 
' read over ' and to ' study ' beforehand their reading ex- 

6^ 



130 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

ercise — a task entirely unsuitable at their age — and will also 
put an end to the absurd practice of allowing pupils to keep 
up, during the reading exercise, a running criticism upon 
each other by irritating and aggravating remarks, thus 
mortifying their more timid companions, and sometimes 
paying off old grudges ; and w^ill then confine their labors 
mainly to two points — to making the child realize the 
thought of the sentence to be read, and to showing him, 
by example and good vocal drill, how to give a pleasant 
and natural expression to that thought — the best part of 
the victory will be won." — Sii])erintendent A. P. Stone. 

II. "A part of the time saved by judicious manage- 
ment should be given to reading; not to the mere call- 
ing of words, nor to premature lessons in elocution, but 
to plain reading in good books for the sake of the infor- 
mation they contain. It is not creditable to our efforts 
as educators that so large a proportion of pupils passes 
from us without having acquired a taste for the reading 
of good books. If our system confers the ability to read 
without creating a desire for the right kind of reading, it 
surely stands in need of reformation. . . . Yery little of 
the arithmetic which children learn at school can be made 
available in after-life. Their feats of analysis and parsing 
arc? never to be repeated in the actual contests of actual 
life. Nine tenths of what they have learned as geography 
will pass away as the morning cloud and the early dew. 
But a taste for good reading will last for life; will be 
available every day and almost every hour, and will grow 
by what it feeds on ; will so occupy the time of the young 
as to rob temptation of half its power by stealing more 
than half its opportunities ; and will be a refuge and a 
solace in adversity." — Superintendent Newell. 



CONDENSED DIEECTIONS FOR TEACHING READING. 131 

III. " We not only want more reading-books, but dif- 
ferent ones ; not Readers, not fragments of writings, but 
writings, however brief — a story or a history, a book of 
travels or a poem — associated as vividly as possible with 
the author who wrote them, not a mere book-maker who 
has patched together pieces of them. With such reading- 
books, intelligently nsed, the inability of our children to 
read at sight and with expression would become less com- 
mon and less painful. As for grammar, it would almost 
develop itself from such reading as this. Familiarity with 
the best thoughts and expressions w^ould lead children, 
with comparatively little effort, to think and express 
themselves in good language." — Bujperintendent Eliot. 

lY. " I do not hesitate to declare nly conviction that if 
half the school-time were devoted to reading, solely for 
the sake of reading ; if books were put into the scholars' 
hands all that while, under wise direction, divested of 
every shadow of association with text-book work, to be 
perused with interest and delight inspired by their attrac- 
tive contents — choice volumes of history, biography, trav- 
els, poetry, fiction — there would be a far more profitable 
disposal of it than marks its lapse in many a schoolroom 
now. The ordinary reading of the schools is a pointless, 
starveling performance, so far as language-teaching is con- 
cerned." — Superintendent Harrington. 

Y. " Good reading is an art so difficult that not one in 
a hundred educated persons is found to possess it to the 
satisfaction of others, although ninety-nine in a hundred 
would be offended were they told that they did not know 
how to read. The essential requisites are, perfect mastery 
of pronunciation, and the power of seizing instantaneous- 
ly the sense and spirit of an author." — Marcel. 



132 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chapter III. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING SPELLING, WORD- 
ANALYSIS, AND DEFINING. 

I. SPELLING. 

1. Make a judicious combination of oral spelling with 
written exercises. Oral spelling secures correct pronun- 
ciation, and awakens a keener interest in pupils ; written 
spelling is the more practical, but is apt to become weari- 
some if carried on exclusively. 

2. Train primary pupils on short lists of the names of 
common things. 

3. Eequire them to copy at least one paragraph from 
each reading-lesson. 

4. In oral spelling, excite a spirit of emulation by allow- 
ing pupils to win their rank in line by "going up" when 
they spell a word that has been missed. 

5. Allow pupils, at least once a week, to " choose sides " 
and have a spelling-match. 

6. 1£ a spelling-book is in the hands of your pupils, 
when you assign a lesson pronounce every word, and re- 
quire the class to pronounce in concert after you, in order 
to secure correct pronunciation. Then let each scholar in 
turn pronounce one word, going over the lesson a second 
time. Call special attention to words of difficult spelling, 
and to those containing silent letters. Occasionally call 
upon some pupil to dictate the spelling-lesson. Eequire 



CONDENSED DIEECTIONS FOR TEACHING SPELLING, ETC. 133 

pupils to study their lessons, both oral and written, by 
copying the words on their slates ; the act of writing will 
secure some attention to the lesson. 

7. If a spelling-book is not used, you must supply, in 
some measure, the lack of one by grouping words into 
short lessons and dictating them to your pupils, to be 
copied into blank-books. There is a great waste of labor 
in taking up words heterogeneously, instead of by groups. 

8. In written exercises, after the papers or slates are 
corrected, require pupils to rewrite their misspelled words. 

9. Do not require pupils to commit to memory and re- 
peat all the words of the spelling-lesson. " How such an 
absurdity," says Superintendent Philbrick, "could ever 
enter the head of a sane teacher, it is difficult to con- 
ceive." 

10. Require pupils to pronounce each word before spell- 
ing it. 

11. In oral spelling, require pupils to divide words into 
syllables ; but, in long words, do not require the syllables 
to be pronounced or repronounced. 

12. In all grades above the lowest, make out carefully 
arranged lists of words which pupils are liable to misspell ; 
let the pupils copy the words into blank-books, and study 
the lessons until they are thoroughly learned. 

13. Let pupils exchange papers and correct the spelling 
in one another's exercises. This of itself is one of the 
most profitable of spelling-lessons. 

14. In oral spelling, require pupils occasionally to define 
words, and to construct sentences showing the meaning 
and use of the words. 

15. Give early and continued attention to the practical 
application of a few of the important rules of spelling, 



134 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

such as doubling the final consonant before -ing and -ed, 
dropping final e, etc. By this means, pupils will learn 
to spell correctly a large class of words in current use. 

10. The teaching of spelling should be so conducted as 
to unfold something of the meaning of w^ords, and some- 
thing of the formation of derivative from primitive words 
and roots. The exercise then becomes a part of good in- 
tellectual training, instead of a blind effort of memorj^ 

17. Correct spelling is a conventional test of accurate 
scholarship. The teacher should endeavor to secure the 
best results by stimulating the interest of pupils by the 
charm of novelty, variety, emulation, and amusement. 

II. SPELLING-GAMES. 

Let the whole class stand in line. Require pupils to 
sit down if they fail to give a word or to spell it, or if 
they repeat a word given before by some other scholar. 
Continue until all but one are seated. 

1. Give and spell the name of some article of food. 

2. Give and spell the name of some animal. 

3. Give and spell the name of some city. 

4. Give and spell the name of some article manufact- 
ured of iron ; of wood. 

5. Give and spell the given name of some boy ; of some 
girl. 

Other Topics for Lists. 

1. Trees. 3. Countries. 5. Fishes. 

2. Rivers. 4. States of the U. S. 6. Birds, etc. 

6. Take long words, like incomprehensibility, and let 
each scholar in the line name, in order, one letter. 

7. Take a similar method by letting each pupil spell 
one syllable. 



CONDENSED DIEECTIONS FOK TEACHING SPELLING, ETC. 135 

8. Let each pupil dictate to the next scholar a word of 
two syllables. 

9. Eequire each scholar to name and spell a word hav- 
ing the sound of long a in the first syllable. Also of 

1. Italian a. 4. a in ask. 7. e in her. 

2. Broad a. 5. a in care. 8. Long i. 

3. Short a. 6. Long e. 9. Etc. 

10. Give and spell a word of three syllables. 

11. Give and spell a word of four syllables: of five 
syllables. 

12. Let the first pupil name and spell some monosyl- 
lable ; the next scholar, name and spell one beginning with 
the last letter of the previous word, and so on. 

Wote. — Words ending in x imist he ruled out. 

13. Let the first pupil give and spell a word of one syl- 
lable, and the second scholar name and spell a word that 
rhymes with it ; the second scholar then to name a new 
word, and the third to give a rhyme for it, etc. In the 
same way, take words of two and three syllables. 

III. WRITTEN EXERCISES FOR PRIMARY CLASSES. 

Note. — Take one of the following exercises at a lesson. 
Let pupils exchange slates or papers, and correct one an- 
other's exercises, 

1. Write the names of five articles of dress. 

2. Of five wild animals ; ^nq domestic animals. 

3. Of five garden fiowers ; five wild flowers. 

4. Of ^\Q species of birds ; five fishes. 
6. Write ten given or Christian names. 

6. Write the full names of ten of your schoolmates. 

T. Write the names of five great men. 

8. Of five of your uncles, aunts, or cousins. 



136 METHODS OF TEACniNG. 

9. Write the names of five cities ; five rivers. 

10. The names of five States ; five countries. 

11. The names of ten articles kept for sale in a grocery- 
store. 

12. The names of twenty articles of food. 

IV. WRITTEN EXERCISES FOR GRAMMAR GRADES. 

1. Bring in a list of twenty words of one syllable, to 
illustrate the rule for doubling the final consonant before 
-ing or -ed. 

2. Of twenty w^ords that do not double the final con- 
sonant before -ing or -ed. 

3. Of twenty words of two syllables that double the 
final consonant before -ing and -ed ; of twenty that do not. 

4. Of twenty words in ^vhich final e is dropped on add- 
ing a sufiix beginning -with a vowel. 

5. Of twenty words in which final y of the primitive 
word is changed into i before a sufiix. 

V. ORAL EXERCISE FOR GRAMMAR GRADES. 

1. ISTame and spell a derivative word, to illustrate the 
rule for doubling the final consonant of the primitive 
w^ord. 

2. Ditto, the rule for not doubling it. 

3. Ditto, the rule for dropping final e. 

4. Ditto, the rule for changing y into i. 

6. Ditto, the rule for not changing y before a sufiix. 

VI. WORD-ANALYSIS. 

If you teach word-analysis in classes where pupils have 
no text-book on this subject, taking it up as an occasional 
exercise, 



CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING SPELLINGj ETC. 137 

1. Take the suffix -ei\ and ask each pupil in the class to 
give and define some word which contains it as a suffix; 
as, teacher, one who teaches, etc. 

2. Next require each pupil to bring in a list of all such 
words that he can think of. 

3. Take a similar exercise with the suffix -or, meaning 
one who. 

4. Then take up in a similar way each of the Anglo- 
Saxon, or Teutonic, prefixes and suffixes. 

5. Take the leading Romanic prefixes and suffixes in a 
similar manner. 

6. Take a few of the leading Latin roots, such ^^facere, 
ducere, tendere, etc., and make out lists of words derived 
from them. 

7. Give from time to time lists of interesting words, 
and let pupils find out their origin and history from the 
dictionary; as, for example, Bible, heaven, pagan, daisy, 
fuchsia, agate, calico, tariff, crusade, candidate, etc. 

8. " Tlie first decided exemplification of language-les- 
sons on the great scale," says Bain, '' is the teaching of 
synonymous words. The best examj^le of this is the per- 
petual passing to and fro between our two vocabularies — 
Saxon and Classical. The pupils bring with them the 
homely names for what they know, and the master trans- 
lates these into the more dignified and accurate names ; 
or, in reading, he makes the learned names intelligible by 
referring to the more familiar." 

9. A thorough knowledge of words gained by a careful 
study of roots, definitions, and synonyms is the only solid 
basis for an appreciative study of the masterpieces of lit- 
erature, or for the formation of a good style in w^riting. 
It is said that Daniel Webster acquired his remarkably 



138 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

accurate use of words by studying synonyms half an hour 
daily for ten years. 

10. " The study of English words," says Eussell, " if 
faithfully pursued, in the daily lessons of our schools, with 
anything like the application exhibited in the examina- 
tion and classifying and arranging and labelling of the 
specimens of even a very ordinary cabinet, would enrich 
the intellectual stores of the young, and even of the ma- 
ture, mind to an extent of which we can at present hardly 
form a conception. ISTothing, however, short of such dili- 
gence will serve any effectual purpose." 

VII. WORD-MATCHES. 

Let the pupils choose sides and stand in line. Those 
who fail to give a word will be seated. A word repeated 
is counted as a failure. 

1. Eequire each pupil in turn to give a word having 
the prefix out-. 

2. Give a word with the prefix un-. 

3. A word with the sufiix -er. 

4. A word with the prefix in-. 

5. A word with the sufiix -ness ; -ion. 

6. Extend the exercises by taking any S2(j)ix that is in 
common use. 

7. Give a word derived from the Latin Yevh-rootf acere. 

8. Continue the exercise with other Latin roots. 

9. Let one side give out a word, and require the other 
side to give a synonym. 

10. Let one side give a word, and require the other side 
to give a word of oj)j)Oslte meaning. 

11. Give a Iwomanic sufiix, state its force, and give a 
word to illustrate. 



CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING SPELLING, ETC. 139 

12. Give a word containing the Greek root grajyliein^ 
to write. 

13. Give and define a word containing the Greek root 
logos. 

14. Give and spell a word derived from the Greek. 

15. Give and spell a word derived from the French. 

16. Spell a word of Latin derivation. 

17. Name and spell a word of Teutonic, or Anglo-Sax- 
on, derivation. 

18. IN^ame a Teutonic word, and give a synonymous 
w^ord of Latin origin; as Irotherly^fraterncd. 

VIIL DEFINING. 

1. Never require a scholar to give formal definitions 
of simple words wdiose meaning is already well enough 
known. 

2. Train your pupils at an early age to the habit of re- 
ferring to the school dictionary for definitions. 

3. Mark any difficult v/ords in the advance reading-les- 
son, and require pupils to find out the dictionary defini- 
tions. 

4. Give out, once or twice a week, a list of five words 
to be defined at the next lesson. 

5. Eequire each pupil to bring into the class one word, 
define it orally, and use it in a sentence. 

6. If a spelling-book is in use, call attention in every 
lesson to the meaning of every word not likely to be fully 
understood by the class. Call for volunteer definitions 
by the pupils ; "and if they fail, give a definition yourself. 
Then require the word to be used in a sentence. 

7. Exact and full definitions should be required, in gen- 
eral, only from advanced pupils when they have gained 



140 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

the knowledge necessary to frame definitions, or to un- 
derstand idiy tliey are so framed. 

8. A simple explanation by a pupil of the ^im of a word 
is often better than a formal dictionary definition. 

9. Beware of defining a word by means of a synonym 
equally incomprehensible. The profound scholar who, in 
addressing a class of little children, made use of the word 
abridgment^ and then explained its meaning by using epit- 
ome^ was a poor teacher, though a classical scholar. 

10. The following hints about definitions in general, in 
the various school studies, are taken from Currie's Com- 
7)ion-school Education : 

"Elementary instruction should therefore not hegin, 
but end, with definitions. But, on the other hand, since 
the definition of a tiling is that conception of it with 
which alone the mind can go forward to any higher 
knowledge regarding it, the teacher must contemplate 
its use in due time. He may introduce it almost from 
the first, if he keep it in its proper place and within 
proper limits. As the pupil advances, his training should 
make him more and more capable of forming definitions." 



CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOK TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 141 



Chapter IY. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 

1. Train beginners from four to six years of age on 
combinations of numbers, not exceeding 10, in addition, 
subtraction, multiplication, and division. Begin with 
counters^ such as small blocks of wood, shells, corn, beans, 
or pebbles, and use them for two or three months, until 
the pupils can make the combinations without the aid of 
objects. [See Grube's Method in Fart III.] 

2. After these combinations are thoroughly learned, 
whether in three months or in a year, extend the combi- 
nations to 20 ; then to 50 ; next, 100. 

3. In connection with object-work and mental opera- 
tions, teach pupils how to make figures on the blackboard, 
and how to express operations according to the forms of 
written arithmetic. [See Part III., "Arithmetic."] In the 
beginning, proceed slowly, allow no hesitation, pass no 
error. Aim here, as afterwards, to form the habit of ac- 
curate and ready calculation, and of using rightly the 
reasoning powers. 

4. After the first year, teach decimals in connection 
with whole numbers, at least to the extent of adding and 
subtracting; and of multiplying and dividing them by 
whole numbers. Limit : first step, tenths ; second, Jimi- 
dredths; third, thousandths. [See Part III., "Arithme- 
tic."] In the second and third years, teach common frac- 
tions, limited mainly to halves, thirds, fourths, etc., to 



142 METUODS OF TEACHING. 

twelfths. Illustrate simple operations by means of ap- 
ples, crayons, or lines upon the blackboard. [See Part 
III, " Arithmetic."] 

5. Children under ten or twelve years of age should be 
limited mainly to operations in addition, subtraction, mul- 
tiplication, and division, in order to secure accuracy and 
readiness. Problems, analyses, and demonstrations come 
proj)erly when the reasoning faculties are more fully de- 
veloped. '' In certain respects," says Bain, '' this knowl- 
edge [empirical] is highly scientific ; the terms are clearly 
conceived, the directions precisely followed, and the re- 
sults accurately arrived at. There is nothing slipshod, 
no vagueness to be corrected, nothing to be unlearned. 
The theory, rationale, or demonstrative connection of the 
steps is alone wanting ; and that is a later acquirement." 

6. Let beginners in the four rules, fractions, and table- 
work learn first the mechanical process of doing things. 
Work an example on the blackboard before their eyes, 
and let them learn by imitation. Of course, in some 
cases, you make the reason plain by suitable explanations ; 
hid do not require your jpujpils to explain at this stage. 
Keep your long-drawn-out demonstrations, and your nor- 
mal-school "analyses" for pupils nearer your own age. 
For some parts of arithmetical work, there are no patent 
devices for escaping from downright memory and hard 
practice-work. The learning of the multiplication-table, 
however introduced by object-lessons, must mainly be an 
affair of memory and the result of long-continued repeti- 
tion, even w^hen pupils have reached the proper age. 
Hence the necessity of giving pupils a much greater num- 
ber of drill exercises in the four rules than it is possible 
to put into a small text-book on arithmetic. 



CONDENSED DIEECTIONS FOK TEACIIINO AKITIIMETIC. 143 

7. Do not try to make pupils nnderstancl demonstra- 
tions and analyses wliich are beyond the comprehension 
of young children, thongh easily perceived when they are 
older. There are some things in arithmetic that must be 
learned practically as an art before the scientific principles 
are understood. Thomas Hill, ex-President of Harvard 
University, very truly says, " The great reform needed in 
our public schools is to postpone reasoning to the higher 
grammar classes and to the high-schools, and give atten- 
tion to the powers of perception and imagination and the 
acquisition of skill. It is worse than useless for a child to 
explain his arithmetic until he has acquired rapidity and 
certainty in ciphering; it is worse than useless to study 
spelling and grammar before the child can read fluently 
and intelligently." 

8. If a text-book is used by the pupils, omit complicated 
problems, and all questions involving very large numbers. 
On this point Superintendent Stone, of Springfield, re- 
marks, "Improbable examples, such as never occur in 
business, and fractional expressions of large and unusual 
terms, which require much time and wear of brain to 
handle, are not profitable w^ork for children. It is said 
that in ordinary business computations, four fifths of all 
the fractions used, aside from decimals, are halves, fourths, 
eighths, thirds, and sixths. If, therefore, such examples 
only are given as will admit of rapid solution, time will 
be gained for practice greater in amount and variety." 
Superintendent Eliot, of Boston, remarks, "Instead of 
some conception of the simpler laws of mathematics, our 
scholars are misled with rules, or bewildered with puzzles, 
until they know neither what they are trying to learn, 
nor what powers they are trying to use." 



144 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

9. Instead of teacliing the tables by merely requiring 
pupils to memorize and recite them, put the real measures 
of every kind before them, until hand and eye are famil- 
iar with their use. Train your scholars in actual measure- 
ments in long, square, and cubic measure ; borrow from 
some shop the ounce, half-ounce, and pound weights ; the 
pint and quart measures ; the peck, bushel, and half- 
bushel; and experiment with them until your children 
know the reality as well as the words and numbers. By 
all means, teach what you can of the metric system in 
the same way. [See Part III., "Arithmetic."] 

10. It is highly desirable that scholars above the pri- 
mary grades should thoroughly understand all operations 
in common fractions. Proceed slowly, step by step, lim- 
iting all operations to small numbers. [For appropriate 
models, see Part III., " Arithmetic," sec. v.] But do not 
crowd analytical explanations upon children at too early 
an age. " Cliildren," says Bain, " can with difficulty 
rationalize common and decimal fractions. The memory 
for the tables and for the manipulating of fractions ad- 
vances much faster than the comprehension of the rea- 
sons ; and it is not desirable to face these at the age when 
they are not readily intelligible. There is plenty of in- 
terest in the operations without the comprehending of 
the scheme of mathematical demonstration ; the ability to 
work the prescribed exercises brings its own reward." 

11. Use the blackboard yourself, for the purpose of 
giving explanations or models. Drill your puj^ils at the 
blackboards, sending up one half the class while the oth- 
er half is engaged in slate-work. Give both divisions the 
same examples, and insist on good figures and neat work 
in addition to accuracy. Give frequent drill exercises 



CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING ARITHMETIC. 145 

in addition — the operation in whicli more mistakes are 
made than in any other. Train pupils to consider ac- 
curacy as vastly more important than rapidity. Train 
pupils to exchange slates and correct one another's work. 

12. Carry on mental and written arithmetic together. 
Introduce principles by mental operations with small num- 
bers ; then, having fixed the principle, apply the rule to 
larger numbers on the slate or blackboard. 

13. An excellent class drill in mental arithmetic is to 
take a five-minute exercise as follows : Make np a set of 
ten practical business questions ; read a question and al- 
low from a quarter to a half minute for the mental 
solution, and require the answers to be written on slates 
or paper ; so continue with the set. Then let pupils ex- 
change slates, and credit the correct answers as given by 
the teacher. Aside from its practical business training, 
the disciplinary value of this exercise is that it trains to 
a habit of fixed attention, [For models, see Part III., 
'' Arithmetic."] 

14. A good method of oral drill is as follows : Let the 
pupils stand in line around the room, requiring any one 
who fails to give a correct answer to go to his seat. 
" Count by 2's to 50, and then backwards." The first 
scholar counts 2, the second 4, and so on. Continue this 
drill with the numbers 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, according 
to the advancement of the class. The value of this exer- 
cise as a mental discipline is that it requires the fixed atten- 
tion of every member of the class, and leads to a habit of 
readiness and promptness. The same exercise may be 
taken as a concert drill. 

15. Let the pupils stand and allow each scholar to give 
the next in line some short business example. 

7 



146 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

16. Occasionally match one class against another, or one 
division against another, by snbmitting five business ques- 
tions to be worked in a given time on the slate. Then 
compare the percentage obtained. 

17. Do not take more than one hour a day for arith- 
metic. Depend mainly upon slate and blackboard drill in 
school. It is a bad plan to give out long lists of exam- 
ples to be solved at home. 

18. The essential parts of arithmetic which all pupils 
should understand are the four rules, common and decimal 
fractions, the tables of money, weights and measures, and 
their application, percentage, and the principles of pro- 
portion. All the rest of the text-book may be omitted, 
without much loss, by all except high-school pupils. A 
great deal that passes in school-books under the name of 
arithmetic consists largely of conventional exercises, of no 
practical and of little disciplinary value. If you are al- 
lowed any discretion in the matter, cut out half of the 
text-book ; but make up and give to your class numberless 
sets of simple, practical, business questions, both mental 
and written. 

19. One marked defect in most of the modern school 
arithmetics is that they are filled up with long " expla- 
nations" and. " analyses," to the exclusion of drill exam- 
ples. The explanations, if given at all, should be given 
orally by the teacher ; they do not belong to a pupil's book, 
unless it is assumed that the teacher knows nothing what- 
ever about the subject. Another marked defect,- arising 
from limited space, is the stepping from very simple ques- 
tions to complex ones, and a too rapid transition from one 
topic to another. As a teacher, it is your business to rem- 
edy, in some degree, these defects by adding here and 



CONDENSED DIKECTIONS FOE TEACHING AKITIIMETIC. 147 

cutting out there. Difficult problems, requiring sustained 
processes of reasoning, or complicated forms of analytical 
explanations, should be given only to the more advanced 
pupils whose reflective faculties are somewhat developed. 
In fact, what are termed "hard cpestions" do not come 
within the province of the common school at all, if, indeed, 
of any school. 

" For the large majority," says Bain, " the solution of 
problems is not the highest end. !Nine tenths of the pu- 
pils derive tlieir chief benefit from the ideas and forms 
of thinking which they can transfer to other regions of 
knowledge." 

20. Review frequently by giving out short, simple prob- 
lems that involve a knowledge of all that the pupil has 
gone over in any preceding grade. Repetition will fix 
principles. What pupils can do they hnoiv^ and they know 
little else. 

21. Take especial pains to make the pupils familiar 
with common business forms. See that they thoroughly 
understand the ordinary phraseology used in mercantile 
transactions. 

22. Train the pupils to reason for themselves, to state 
not only what they do, but why they do it. Let them 
test the trutli and accuracy of their processes ^^ lyvoof^ the 
only test they will have to rely upon in real business 
transactions. Endeavor to form in them habits of patient 
investigation and self-reliance, so that they will be able to 
know for themselves whether their work is correct or not. 

23. Arithmetic is a means of promoting sustained atten- 
tion ; of rendering tlie memory more tenacious by retain- 
ing the conditions of a question in mind during the solu- 
tion ; and of cultivating, to some extent, the reasoniiig 



14:8 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

powers. It trains to habits of accuracy. It teaches the pu- 
pil how to proceed from the known to the unknown, the 
simple to the complex, the particular to the general, ex- 
ample to rule. More than any other elementary study, it 
enables the teacher to estimate the exact amount of work 
actually done by pupils. The teacher must keep clearly in 
mind the two leading objects of the study of arithmetic : 
(1) for practical business in life ; (2) for mental discipline 
in habits of attention, and in simple processes of reasoning. 

24. Teachers should bear in mind that for many pupils 
arithmetic is a difficult study, especially at an early age. 
It is not wise to assume that pupils who are dull in arith- 
metic are obtuse in all other studies. Benjamin Franklin, 
at school, was a dullard in arithmetic, but he managed to 
get on in the world nevertheless. 

" It is a very common notion," says De Morgan, " that 
arithmetic is easy ; and a child is called stupid who does 
not receive his first ideas of number with facility ; but 
this is a mistake. Were it otherwise, savage nations w^ould 
acquire a numeration, and a power of using it, at least pro- 
jDortional to their actual wants." 

25. While arithmetic is a very important study, the 
young teacher should avoid making it a hobby. It is well 
to bear in mind the caution of Bain as to wdiat mathemat- 
ics does not do: "It does not teach us how to observe, 
how to generalize, how to classify. It does not teach us 
the prime art of defining by the examination of particu- 
lar things. It guards us against some of the snares of lan- 
guage, but not all ; it is no aid when statements and argu- 
ments are perplexed by verbiage, contortions, inversions, 
and ellipses. The too exclusive devotion to it gives a 
wrong *bias of mind respecting truth generally; and, his- 



CONDENSED DIKECTIONS FOR TEACHING AEITHMETIC. 149 

torically, it has introduced serious errors into philosophy 
and general thinking." 

" Life is not long enough," says Thomas Hill, " to spend 
so large a proportion of it on arithmetic as is spent in the. 
modern system of teaching it ; and arithmetic is too valu- 
able an art to have our children neglect to acquire facil- 
ity in it, while they are being stu23eiied and disgusted with 
premature attempts to understand it as a science." 



150 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chapter Y. 

LANGUAGE -LESSONS, GRAMMAK, AND COMPOSITION. 

I. LANGUAGE -LESSONS AND GRAMMAR. 

1. In considering this branch of school studies, it is well 
to bear in mind the following axioms : 

(1.) " Sjjeech is acquired mainly l>y imitation^ 
(2.) Imitation precedes originality. 
(3.) Language precedes arithmetic. 
(4.) Grammar comes, not before language, but af- 
ter it. 

2. In the primary grades, teachers must give patient 
and persistent attention to the correction of vulgarisms, 
provincialisms, and current blunders in speech, without 
waiting for any grammatical knowledge whatever. 

3. Oral and written language-lessons should precede the 
use of a text-book on grammar. Begin wTitten exercises 
by requiring pupils to construct short simple sentences 
that begin with a capital and end with a period. [See 
Part III., Chapter lY., I.] 

" Teachers who take the pains to observe well," says 
Professor Pussell, "know that there is a stage in the life 
of childhood when expression is a spontaneous tendency 
and a delight ; when to construct a sentence on his slate, 
or pencil a note on paper, is to the miniature ambitious 
student a conscious achievement, and a triumph of power." 

4. For beginners in composition, after the prerequisite 



LANGUAGE -LESSONS, GEAMMAR, AND COMPOSITION. 151 

exercises in sentence-makiag, write a very short, simple 
story on the blackboard, and let them copy it on their 
slates, or on paper. Continue this for a time, and then 
let them copy short reading-lessons from the book, or in- 
teresting paragraphs from the longer lessons. A few ex- 
ercises of this kind, taken at long intervals, are not enough ; 
they must be continued daily for several years of school 
life. '' The necessity of a progressive and graduated 
course of training in the mother tongue," says Professor 
Swinton, author of " Language Lessons," etc., '^ extending 
over some years, and beginning in practice and ending in 
theory, is now generally recognized and acted upon." 

5. One of the very best of exercises is to let children 
reproduce from memory, in their own words, stories told 
them by the teacher, or which they themselves have read 
or heard out of school. In this way writing becomes a 
pleasure instead of a task. Originality in thought must 
not be expected of children. 

" Stories," says Miss Keeler, " offer the best opportu- 
nity to improve the child's language and culture. You 
can do almost anything with children if 3^ou will. only tell 
them stories. You can refine their feelings, touch their 
emotions, rouse their enthusiasm, awaken their ambition, 
enkindle their devotion. There is nothing in the broad 
sweep of noble living or noble thinking that you cannot 
bring to their consciousness by means of a story. As for 
language, the story is the very royal road to its acquisi- 
tion. Tell a group of children a story which awakens 
their interest and enchains their fancy, and then ask for it 
back again, and notice how accurately it will come." 

6. If pupils are kept busy upon sentence-making and 
composition exercises up to the age of twelve, it will not 



152 MEXnODS OF TEACHING. 

be necessary to Wcaste much time in "parsing" or sen- 
tence-analysis. On this point Superintendent Newell re- 
marks, " Being an art, grammar must be learned in the 
beginning, as all other arts are learned, by the practice of 
it. We learn to draw by drawing, we learn to paint by 
painting, we learn to dance by dancing, and w^e must learn 
' the art of speaking and writing the English language' by 
writing and speaking it, not by parsing and analyzing it." 

7. In all grammar grades except the highest class, lan- 
guage-lessons and actual composition work constitute the 
best means of acquiring a ready and correct use of lan- 
guage, which, in its turn, becomes a sound basis for the 
study of technical grammar. " It is constant use and prac- 
tice, under never-failing watch and correction," says Whit- 
ney, " that makes good writers and speakers." " As gram- 
mar was made after language," says Spencer, " so it ought 
to be taught after language." 

8. One of the most practical of all exercises is letter- 
writing. As soon as a child can write at all, it ought to 
be trained to write a short letter. In every grade dur- 
ing the whole course, repeated exercises in letter- writing 
should be given, so that on leaving school, at any age from 
ten to fifteen years, every scliolar should be able to write 
a letter neatly and correctly, to fold it, direct it properly, 
and to put on a postage-stamp. [For suggestions in this 
exercise, see Part III., Chapter lY.] 

9. Require pupils to memorize a part or the whole of a 
short poem, and then to write it out from memory, punct- 
uate, and capitalize it. 

10. Require j^upils to write compositions drawn from 
their lessons in history and geography, thus utilizing their 
knowledge on those subjects. 



LANGUAGE -LESSONS, GEAIMMAE, AND COMPOSITION. 153 

11. Require only brief and reasonable forms of parsing, 
limited mainly to the construction of the word, or its office 
in the sentence, and its relation to some other word. The 
Latinized "models for parsing" in many text-books in- 
volve a great waste of time. 

"It makes one shudder," says President Chadbourne, 
" to think of the trash which scholars have been compelled 
to learn in connection with the simple studies of grammar, 
arithmetic, and geography." 

12. liequire a few essential definitions to be thoroughly 
learned, but first show your scholars how a definition is 
"made iijp^ and why it must he expressed in the words lohich 
are used, so that it may he rememhered by meaning as well 
as in luords. A comparison of the different ways of ex- 
pressing the same definition is an excellent class exercise 
for discussion and criticism. 

13. Explain clearly the meaning and use of the ten lead- 
ing rules of syntax, and then require your pupils to get 
them by heart. But mcike sure that they first itnder- 
stand what the rides mean, and how they are practically 
applied. Thousands of pupils have repeated hundreds of 
times Rule I., " A verb must agree with its subject in 
number and person," without the slightest notion of its 
real meaning or practical application. 

14:. Give your older pupils some training in the analy- 
sis of sentences, but make use of brief and simple forms. 
Sentential analysis has its uses, but it must not be made a 
hobby of. Sentence-making is a more profitable exercise 
than complicated metaphysical sentence - analysis with a 
lony array of minor modifiers. 

15. Grammar is one of the most difficult of the com- 
mon-school studies. To teach it successfully requires the 

7^ 



154 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

highest degree of skill on the part of the teacher. " It is 
more difficult than arithmetic," says Bain, " and is proba- 
bly on a par with the beginnings of algebra and geometry. 
It cannot be effectively taught to the mass before ten years 
of age." " To teach grammar without a printed text is 
like teaching religion without a manual or catechism : 
either the teacher still uses the catechism without the print, 
or he makes a catechism for himself. There can be no teach- 
ing except on a definite plan and sequence, and good in- 
stead of harm arises from putting the plan in print. The 
grammar-teacher working without books either tacitly uses 
some actual grammar, or else works upon a crude, untested, 
irresponsible grammar of his own making." 

16. Bear in mind that the main object of the study of 
grammar is not so much to enable pupils to speak and 
write correctly as to enable them tetter to understand what 
they read, A knowledge of grammar is essential to a right 
appreciation of the masterpieces of literature. With more 
advanced pupils, the right study of grammar is a means 
of mental discipline fully equal to that of mathematics. 

"I hold," says Tyndall, "that the proper study of lan- 
guage is an intellectual discipline of the highest kind. 
The piercing through the involved and inverted sentences 
of Paradise Lost ; the linking of the verb to its often 
distant nominative, of the relative to its distant antece- 
dent, of the agent to the object of the transitive verb, of 
the preposition to the noun or pronoun which it governed ; 
the study of variations in mood and tense ; the transforma- 
tions often necessary to bring out the true grammatical 
structure of a sentence — all this was to my young mind a 
discipline of the highest value, and, indeed, a source of 
unflagging delight." 



LANGUAGE- LESSONS, GEAMMAE, AND COMPOSITION. 155 

II. COMPOSITION. 
1. DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHERS. 

1. When you take charge of a class not previously 
trained in composition writing, set the pupils to copying 
short reading-lessons. Let them exchange papers, and, 
with open book, correct one another's exercises with ref- 
erence to spelling, punctuation, capitals, and paragraphs. 

2. Next, let them write out an abstract of some familiar 
story, told or read to the class. 

3. When you require a formal composition, select a 
subject for the entire class, and give the necessary direc- 
tions, explanations, and suggestions. Select subjects about 
which your pupils know something — never abstract sub- 
jects, such as happiness, or knowledge, or virtue. 

4. Train your pupils to correct one another's composi- 
tions, and require them to rewrite corrected exercises. 

5. " I call that the best theme," says Thomas Arnold, 
^' wdiich shows that the boy has read and thought for him- 
self ; that the next best which shows that he has read sev- 
eral books and digested what he has read ; and that the 
w^orst which shows that he has followed but one book, 
and followed that without reflection." 

6. " Training in the appropriate use of the English 
language ought not to be limited to the mere grammat- 
ical exercise of composing sentences. Even in our com- 
mon-schools, it should extend to the cultivation of taste 
by which neat as well as correct expression is acquired 
as a habit." — liussell. 

7. " I hold it as a great point in self -education that the 
student should be continually engaged in forming exact 
ideas, and in expressing them clearly by language. Such 



156 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

practice insensibly opposes any tendency to exaggeration 
or mistake, and increases the sense and love of truth in 
every part of life. Those who reflect npon how many 
hours and days are devoted by a lover of sweet sounds to 
gain a moderate facility upon a mere mechanical instru- 
ment ouo:ht to feel the blush of shame if convicted of 
neglecting the beautiful living instrument wherein play 
all powers of the mind." — Professor Faraday. 

8. " The study of rhetoric in high - sciiools ought not 
to be completed in fourteen weeks. It should be contin- 
ued through the entire course, at the rate of one lesson 
a week, because it relates to language, which is the instru- 
ment used by teacher and pupil throughout the course. 
This method will give time to write the exercises assigned 
in works on rhetoric, and will not interfere with other 
studies relating to the English language. — George W. 
Minns. 

2. DIRECTIONS TO BE GIVEN TO PUPILS. 

1. Think about the subject, and make some plan of ar- 
rangement. 

2. l)o not run toirether a Ion 2: strins; of statements con- 
nected by ands.^ huts, or ifs; but make short sentences. 

3. After writing the first draft, examine it critically, 
cross out superfluous words or phrases, interline, correct, 
and then rewrite. 

4. In correcting, examine with reference to — 1. Spelling; 
2. Capitals ; 3. Punctuation ; 4. Use of words ; 5. Construc- 
tion of sentences. 

5. Acquire the habit of crossing ^'s, dotting ^'s, and 
punctuating as you write. 

6. Do not put off writing until the day before you 
must hand in your composition. 



CONDENSED DIEECTIONS FOE TEACHING GEOGEAPHY. 157 



Chapter VI. 

CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 

1. Make beginners familiar with the local geography 
of the place where they live. Lay some kind of a basis 
for conception by calling attention to whatever natural 
features of land and water are within the limited field of 
the pupil's observation ; such as hill, mountain, valley, 
plain, spring, brook, river, pond, lake, village, city, etc. 
Thefi extend these lessons to the surrounding country, 
questioning pupils about all the places that they have 
ever seen in their short journeys. ^N'ext, connect this 
knowledge with the elementary lessons in the text-book, 
or w^ith an outline map. [For first lessons, see Part III., 
Chapter III., sec. iii.] '' In geography," says Agassiz, " let 
us not, at first, resort to books, but let us take a class into 
the fields, point out the hills, valleys, rivers, and lakes, and 
let the pupils learn out-of-doors the points of the com- 
pass ; and then, having shown them these things, let them 
compare the representations with the realities, and the 
maps will have a meaning to them. Then you can go on 
with the books, and they will understand what these things 
mean, and will know what is North and East and South ; 
and will not merely read the letters 'N., E., S., W. on a 
square piece of paper, and perhaps think that the United 
States are about as large as the paper they learn from. 
When I was in the College of l^eufchatel, I desired to 



158 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

introduce such a method of teaching geography. I was 
told it could not be done, and my request to be allowed 
to instruct the youngest children in the institution was 
refused. I resorted to another means, and took my own 
children — my oldest a boy of six years, and my girls, four 
and a half and two and a half years old — and invited the 
children of my neighbors. Some came upon the arms of 
their mothers ; others could already walk without assist- 
ance. These children, the oldest only six years old, I 
took upon a hill above the city of Neufchatel, and there 
showed the magnificent peaks of the Alps, and told them 
the names of those mountains and of the beautiful lakes 
opposite. I then showed them the same things on a 
raised map, and they immediately recognized the locali- 
ties, and were soon able to do the same on an ordinary 
map. From that day geography w\as no longer a dry 
study, but a desirable part of their education." 

2. Use the school globe daily for several weeks, show- 
ing your pupils the grand divisions, the oceans, the equa- 
tor, the poles, etc. Send every pupil by turns to the 
globe. [See Part III., " Geography," sec. i.] 

3. The method of beginning with outlines and after- 
wards filling in with details must, to a certain extent, be 
carried oi\ pari passu with that of laying a foundation of 
correct notions based upon a knowledge of local geogra- 
phy. The extent of local lessons, however, is limited ; and, 
beyond the limit of personal observation by pupils, it 
seems to be the better plan to begin w^ith the grand out- 
lines of geography. Unless children have travelled a 
great deal, they can no more form a correct notion of the 
size of their native State than they can of tlie United 
States or of Asia. A great deal of elementary work nee- 



CONDENSED DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING GEOGRAPHY. 159 

essarily consists in getting familiar with names and maps. 
It must be borne in mincl, too, that generalizations, in 
order to be of any value, must be based on a knowledge 
of particulars. 

4. In using the school text-book, let the advance les- 
son be read over aloud in the class, and then direct your 
scholars to mark with a pencil a few leading points to be 
committed to memory, certainly not more than from one 
tenth to one fourth of an ordinary lesson of descriptive 
text. The following direction from the Massachusetts 
State Course of Instruction embodies a valuable general 
rule for guidance : 

" As travel broadens ideas, so w^ill the study of geog- 
raphy, if rightly pursued ; and pupils may increase the 
value of their lessons by reading books of travel and sto- 
ries of great explorers. The teacher can afford to deal 
sparingly in statistics, latitudes, longitudes, areas, and 
heights, and to avoid dry definitions and detailed map 
questions that lead only to a recital of names of places 
destitute of associations. Such knowledge is not worth 
the time it takes to acquire it, though it may secure rapid 
and accurate recitations." 

5. In the lower grades, let the "map lessons" be read 
aloud in the class, and answered with open book in the 
hands of the pupils; then select a few of the leading 
questions, mark them, and let the class recite them from 
memory at the next lesson. Supplement these lessons 
by short oral descriptions of places mentioned, or by some 
interesting facts connected with them, so that they may 
be remembered by the aid of association. 

6. Train pupils in detail on the geography of their owm 
State ; then, in a more general way, on their section ; and, 



160 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

finally, on a few main points on the United States as a 
whole. Do not attempt to overload the memory with 
the local geography of all the States, as given in most of 
the text-books. As the school geographies are designed 
for nse in all parts of onr country, they are necessarily 
crowded with details to meet the wants of each State or 
locality. The sensible teacher will omit all that properly 
belongs to the local geography of States other than that 
in which the pupil resides. 

"Most of the geographies," says Superintendent Eliot, 
"contain an extraordinary amount of matter, not only 
useless to the few wdio can master it, but injurious to the 
many who cannot." 

7. Do not expect your pupils to know more of a lesson 
than you remember without referring to the text-book. 
If you forget details, it is a sure sign that your pupils 
will, and therefore it is best not to require such details to 
be learned at all. 

8. Having fixed on the main outlines to be learned, take 
frequent reviews upon them in order to fix them firmly 
in the memory. [See Part III., " Geography," sec. vii.] 

9. It is almost imjDOSsible for children to remember the 
name and location of a place unless some association is 
connected with it. You must illuminate geography by 
means of histor^^ and descriptions. 

10. If you have a good relief globe, make use of it reg- 
ularly, even in your higher grades. Use the outline maps 
also. Secure, if possible, a set of cheap German j9f{/?z^r- 
7nache relief maps of the grand divisions. The cost is 
trifling, and the value great. From these maps, the pu- 
pil will be able, in a few hours, to form an idea of pla- 
teaus, mountain-ranges, plains, and general configuration 



CONDENSED DIEECTIONS FOE TEACHING GEOGEAPnY. 161 

that an ordinary map fails to give, and which no verbal 
descriptions can convey. 

11. It will be a pleasant variation from routine work 
to let your pupils write short compositions about the 
countries included in their regular text-book descriptions, 
or about imaginary voyages or travels. 

12. In general, blackboard map-drawing in the rough 
is better than labored drawings with pen or pencil. Map- 
drawing should not be made a hobby of ; kept within due 
limits, the exercise is good, but it often runs into a waste 
of time and labor. 

13. Let beginners draw first a map of the schoolroom, 
then of the schoolhouse and grounds. As they advance, 
let them draw upon the blackboard, from the open book, 
on a large scale, an outline map of their own State, and, 
if possible, of their own county. Then let them outline 
the grand divisions, etc. Finally, require them to outline 
oflP-hand, from memory. 

14. Kequire every class to draw on the blackboards, at 
least once a year, an outline map of their own State and 
of the United States. 

15. Relieve the monotony of daily lessons by exercises 
intended to stimulate and amuse. Show pupils the pict- 
ures, from illustrated magazines or papers, of beautiful or 
grand scenery, or of great natural curiosities, and read any 
short, vivid description of them by travellers. 

I. GEOGRAPHY MATCHES. 

Every pupil tiiat fails, or repeats a name given before, 
must sit down. Continue until all but one are seated. 

1. Name a city in the United States, and tell in what 
State it is. 



1G2 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2. J^ame a river in the United States, and tell into what 
it flows. 

3. Name a city anywhere on the globe, and tell in what 
country it is. 

4. Name any river on the globe, and tell into what it 
flows. 

5. Name a sea, and tell where it is. 

6. Name some useful vegetable production, and tell 
where it grows. 

7. Name some manufactured article, and tell where it 
is made. 

8. Name some caVinet curiosity, and tell where it may 
be found. 

9. Name a town or city in our country beginning with 
the letter B, C, etc. 

10. Name a country or a state; and give its capital 
city. 

11. Let the first pupil name a city or town, and tell in 
w^liat country or state it is; the next in order must name 
another beginning with the last letter of the town or city 
previously named ; and so on. 

II. CLASS EXERCISES IN GEOGRAPHY. 

I. Let one pupil describe some city, and the othfers 
guess the name of it. 

II. Let one pupil think of some city in the United 
States, and the others guess its name by cpiestioning as 
follows : 

1. Is it in the Northern, Southern, Middle, or Western 
States? Ans. Northern. 

2. Is it a seaport, or an inland city % Ans. A seaport. 

3. Is it a large city, or a small one ? Ans. A large city. 



CONDEXSED DIEECTIONS FOE TEACHING GEOGEAPIIY. 163 

4. Is it JS'ew York ? Ans. l^o. 

5. Was a battle ever fought there ? A71S. Yes. 

6. Is it Boston ? ^71.9. Yes. 

III. Let one schohir describo some river, and the others 
guess its name. 

lY. Let one pupil name some city situated on a river, 
and the others tell the name of the river. 

Y. Let the teacher take an imaginary voyage, exchang- 
ing products at various ports — the pupils to guess the 
ports. 



164 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chapter YII. 

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

1. "Whoever undertakes to instruct youth in history," 
says the German educator Niemeyer, " as the vahie of that 
science requires, must regard equally the memory, the un- 
derstanding, and the feelings." 

2. There is no " patent method " for teaching liistory. 
In this study, more than in most other elementary school 
branches, the teacher, by his skill, tact, and stores of in- 
formation, must clothe the skeleton of facts with the flesh 
of imagination, and breathe into it tlie breath of life. 
But, rightly pursued, it has the two characteristics of a 
useful study — namely, good mental exercise and useful 
information. 

3. Let the advance lesson in the text - book be read 
aloud in tlie class. Call attention to the leading facts to 
be memorized, and let the pupils mark them with a pen- 
ciL A considerable part of the history is intended, not to 
be memorized, but merely to be read. 

4. Of the early discoveries treated of so fully in the 
text-book, single out three or four to be learned, and let 
the remainder alone. In the period of settlements, se- 
lect the four great centres — namely, Virginia, Massachu- 
setts, New York, and Pennsylvania ; the remaining settle- 
ments belong properly to local State history. Out of the 
numberless details of Indian and colonial wars, select only 



IIISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES. 165 

half a dozen important points ; let the rest go as local 
State history. So in the Revolutionary AVar, single out a 
very few marked events, and have them learned so that 
they cannot be forgotten. Dwell at length en events 
that happened in the pnpil's own State. 

5. Do not attach much importance to chronological 
tables except for reference. Fix in the minds of your 
pupils the dates of a few great events, and fasten them 
there by frequent reviews. A multitude of minor dates 
may be temj)orarily learned for to-day's lesson, only to be 
crowded into oblivion by to-morrow's recitation. ^'By 
means of history," says Montaigne, " the pupil enjoys in- 
tercourse with the great men of the best periods ; but he 
must learn, not so much the year and the day of the de- 
struction of a city, as noble traits of character; not so 
much occurrences, as to form a correct judgment upon 
them." Examination questions, unfortunately, too often 
run to dates, because such questions are easiest to be asked 
from tlie book, and easiest to be credited. 

6. Eequire pupils to become familiar with the details 
of the history of the State in which they live. 

7. Fix in the memory the causes and the results of the 
War of the Ee volution and of 1812, of the Mexican War 
and the War of Secession ; but do not attempt to make 
pupils remember the dates of many battles. 

8. Short biographical sketches of the great men in our 
history are both interesting and valuable, if they show 
how, by their character and abilities, they improved the 
condition of their nation and of the world. 

9. In written exercises, train pupils to correct one an- 
other's work. 

10. A comprehension of the great facts of history, of 



166 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

their causes, results, and relations, is more important than 
the verbatim memorizing of jDages of text-books. 

11. In questions for written examinations, confine your- 
self strictly to leading events. Include as few dates as pos- 
sible. Teaching chronological tables is not teaching history. 

12. As much as possible assign lessons by topics^ and 
require pupils to recite in their own language. Close the 
text-book yourself, and you will be better satisfied with 
your scholars' answers. 

13. Supplement the dry, condensed statements of the 
text-book by anecdotes, incidents, stories, and biographical 
sketches of noted men, drawn from your own memory 
or from good books. If you are a good story-teller, j^ou 
will thus make history charming to your pup»ils. Under 
the dead mass of dates and political events, you must 
kindle the fire of enthusiasm by familiar narrative. "If 
you tell a boy," said a famous teacher, " that in a certain 
battle General Smith had his horse's tail shot off, he will 
never forget ihat^ though all else soon becomes a blank." 

14. Call the attention of pupils to the progress of the 
nation in the arts and sciences ; to the great inventions 
and discoveries that have been made ; to everything that 
has improved the condition of the people. Lead them to 
perceive that, though history is hardly anything but a rec- 
ord of wars and conquerors, yet " Peace hath her victories 
no less renowned than those of war," and that the most 
glorious victor}^ of war is that which establishes an honor- 
able peace. 

15. "To the youthful spirit," says Russell, "the great 
attraction of history lies in its pictures of life and action, 
and in the s^^npathies wdiich these evoke. To the juve- 
nile reader all history is biography." " All history," says 



niSTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 1G7 

Emerson, "resolves itself very easily into the biography 
of a few stout and earnest persons." 

16. " Of all departments of early teaching," says Bain, 
'^ none is so unmanageable as history. Its protean phases 
of information and of interest, its constant mixture of 
what attracts the youngest with what is intelligible only 
to the maturest minds, renders it especially troublesome in 
early teaching. JN^othing comes sooner home to the child 
than narratives of human beings — their pursuits, their 
passions, their successes and tlieir disasters, their virtues 
and their vices, their rewards and their punislmients, tlieir 
enmities and their friendships, their failures and their 
triumphs." 

CLASS EXERCISES IN HISTORY. 

1. Call upon each pupil in turn to name some person 
distinguished in the history of our country, and to state 
something that he did. 

2. To name some important battle, and tell something 
about it. 

3. To name some settlement, and tell who made it. 

4. Let one pupil describe some noted person, and allow 
the class to guess the name. 

5. Describe some important event, and let the class tell 
when and where it happened. 

G. Give one or more facts as a cause^ and let the class 
state one or more facts as a result. 

7. Let one pupil tJiinh of some noted historical person, 
place, or event, and the others ask questions to ascertain 
what is thought of by that pupil. [See " Geography."] 

8. Let one p)upil thiiih of some historical character, and 
then give to the class circumstance after circumstance, 
until some one is able to guess the name. 



168 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chaptek yill. 

OBJECT-LESSONS AND THE ELEMENTS OF NATURAL 
SCIENCE. 

I. HINTS ON OBJECT-LESSONS. 

1. "The first teaching a child wants," says Huxley, "is 
an object-lesson of one sort or another ; and as soon as it 
is fit for systematic instruction, it is fit for a modicum of 
science." 

2. The main purpose of object-lessons is, not to crowd 
the memory w^ith facts and names, but to train children to 
observe, and to tell what they are able to find out about 
things. 

" Observation," says Pestalozzi, " is the absolute basis 
of all knowledge. The first object, then, in education 
must be to lead a child to observe with accuracy ; the sec- 
ond, to express with correctness the result of his observa- 
tions." 

3. Begin with things that most of your pupils already 
know something about, adhering strictly to the principle 
of examining real objects, when they are procurable ; and, 
when not, of using pictures. Agassiz, having been asked 
to give some instruction on insects at a teacher's institute, 
says, "I thought the best way to proceed would be to 
place the objects in the hands of the teachers, for I knew 
that mere verbal instruction would not be transformed 
into actual knowledge. I therefore went out and collect- 
ed several hundred grasshoppers, brought them in, and 



OBJECT-LESSONS AND ELEMENTS OF NATUEAL SCIENCE. 169 

gave one into the hands of every one present. It created 
universal laughter ; yet the examination of these objects 
had not been carried on long before every one was inter- 
ested, and, instead of looking at me, looked at the thing. 
And they began to examine, and to appreciate what it was 
to see, and see carefully. At first I pointed out the things 
which no one could see. 'We can't see them,' tliey said. 
' But look again,' said I, ' for I can see things ten times 
smaller than these ;' and they finally discerned them." 

This, which is the true kind of object-teaching, is worth 
introducing into the schools, if for no other purpose than 
the training of the eye. There is an old proverb, " See- 
ing is believing," whicli cannot be said of the other senses. 
Also, " What is seen is easily remembered ;" but " what 
goes in at one ear generally goes out at the other." 

4. Do not be over -scientific. Avoid technical terms 
when common names v^ill serve your purpose. " It is not 
science that we want here," says Superintendent Eliot ; 
" much less is it the lion's skin sometimes wrapped round 
the pretence of science, but the simple truth." 

5. Endeavor to train your scholars to observe accurately, 
to be sure of facts, to think for themselves, to reason cor- 
rectly, and not to make up their minds until they have 
reflected carefully upon all the facts. 

6. Train your pupils to write out on slates or paper 
what they can remember about their oral lessons. Writ- 
ing leads to habits of attention, serves to fix ideas in the 
memory, and leads to a ready and correct use of language. 

7. The uses of the object-lesson may be summed up as 
follows : 

(1.) They constitute the first efforts in gaining an em- 
pirical knowledge of things. 
8 



170 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

(2.) They train the mind to habits of connected thought. 
(3.) They stimulate curiosity, the motive power of the 
youthful mind. 

8. " The teacher," says Bain, " can make anything he 
pleases out of the object-lesson ; it may aid the concewing 
faculty, or it may not. The first good effect of it is to 
waken up observation to things within the pupil's ken ; 
by asking such questions as will send them back to re-ex- 
amine what they have been in the habit of slurring over, 
or by questioning them on objects actually present." 

9. " The predominant aspect of the object-lesson," says 
Currie, " is the mental exercises it gives ; it is meant to 
awaken the intelligence, and to cultivate the different 
phases of observation, conception, and taste, without which 
little satisfactory progress can be made in education. It 
is a disciplining, not a utilitarian process ; the information 
it gives is a means, not an end. 

" The range of this department of instruction is exceed- 
ingly comprehensive. It draws its materials from all the 
branches of knowledge, dealing with things which can in- 
terest the child or exercise his mind. Thus, it is natural 
history for children ; for it directs their attention to ani- 
mals of all classes, domestic and others, their qualities, 
habits, and uses ; to trees and plants and flowers ; to the 
metals, and other minerals which, from their j^roperties, 
are in constant use. It is physical science for children ; 
for it leads them to observe the phenomena of the heavens 
— sun^moon, and stars; the seasons, with the light and heat 
which make the changes of the weather ; and the proper- 
ties of the bodies which form the mass of matter around 
us. It is domestic economy for children ; for it exhibits 
to them the things and processes daily used in their homes, 



OBJECT-LESSONS AND ELEMENTS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. lYl 

and the way to use tliem rightly. It is industrial and so- 
cial economy for children ; for it describes the various 
trades, processes in different walks of art, and the arrange- 
ments as to the division of labor which society has sanc- 
tioned for carrying these on in harmony and mutual de- 
pendence. It is physiology for children ; for it tells them 
of their own bodies, and the uses of the various members 
for physical and mental ends, with the way to use them 
best and to avoid their abuse. It is the science of com- 
mon things for children ; for it disregards nothing which 
can come under their notice in their intercourse with their 
fellows or their superiors. And, finally, it is geography 
for children ; since it has favorite subjects of illustration 
in mountain and river, forest, plain, and desert, the differ- 
ent climates of the earth, with their productions and the 
habits of their people, the populous city, and tlie scattered 
wigwams of the savage." 

II. THE ELEMENTS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 

1. In most of the common -schools, instruction in the 
elements of natural science, if given at all, must be given 
in the form of oral lessons, without a text-book in the 
hands of pupils. Hence teachers must select for their 
own use the best possible science primers in the different 
branches of natural science, and from those, or from their 
own knowledge, outline their own course of instruction. 

2. At the outset, train your pupils to use their eyes, to 
examine things^ to observe phenomena, and to make ex- 
periments. "Experiment," says Huxley, "is the great 
instrument for the ascertainment of truth in physical sci- 
ence. Mere book learning in physical science is a sham 
and a delusion ; what you teach you must first hioio^ and 



172 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

real knowledge in science means personal acquaintance 
with facts, be they few or many." 

3. Begin at once the collection of a school cabinet, and 
invite your pupils to bring in specimens. Encourage 
them to make collections for a home-cabinet, of minerals, 
shells, woods, etc. Take them on collecting tours into 
the fields and forests. " The elements of botany, zoology, 
and mineralogy," says Russell, "afford a delightful and 
effective means of training to habits of observing, com- 
paring, and classifying." 

4. By wisely put questions, set your pupils to observ- 
ing the liabits of animals and birds, of ants, bees, w^asps, 
flies, and butterflies. Encourage them to make collec- 
tions of butterflies and beetles. Let the older boys try 
their hand at stufling birds. Persuade your j)upils to buy 
a magnifying-glass or a cheap microscope, and begin ex- 
amining things for themselves. " For many years," says 
Carlyle, " it has been one of my constant regrets that no 
schoolmaster of mine had a knowledge of natural history, 
so far, at least, as to have taught me the grasses that grow 
by the wayside, and the little winged and wingless neigh- 
bors that are continually meeting me w^ith a salutation 
wdiich I cannot answer as things are. Why didn't some- 
body teach me the constellations, too, and make me at 
home in the starry heavens which are always overhead, 
and which I don't half know to this day." 

5. If you w^ish to succeed, you must do the actual 
w^ork of the naturalist, and must make your pupils do it. 
You must flt yourself to do this work by taking an inter- 
est in it. It is not at all necessary that you should be a 
specialist in botany, zoology, or natural philosophy ; but 
it is necessary that you should know something about the 



OBJECT-LESSONS AND ELEMENTS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 173 

true methods of the specialist. Taken up in the right 
spirit, instruction in the natural sciences can be made one 
of the most effective means of education. " No subjects," 
sajs Professor Barnard, " are better suited than botany, 
zoology, and mineralogy to gratify the eager curiosity of 
the growing mind ; to satisfy its cravings after positive 
knowledge ; to keep alive the activity of the i^erceptive 
powers ; to ilhistrate the beauty and value of method, and 
to lead to the formation of methodical habits of thought." 

6. In physics, make your experiments with the sim- 
plest kind of improvised apparatus. Whenever you make 
an experiment, however simple, make it with great care 
and exactness, telling your pupils in advance what to 
expect and what to observe. Encourage them to make 
simple experiments at home by themselves. Set them 
to observing natural phenomena, such as rain, hail, snow, 
dew, frost, changes of seasons, etc. " The elements of 
physics," says Hotze, '' are no more difficult for pupils 
than are tlie elements of arithmetic." "As a means of 
intellectual culture," says Tyndall, "the study of physics 
exercises and sharpens observation." 

7. In giving the outlines of physiology, make use of 
real objects as far as practicable. The heart and lungs 
of a sheep or an ox can easily be obtained, and are always 
better than models or charts or pictures. If human bones 
cannot be obtained, take the bones of animals and make a 
lesson in comparative anatomy. Dissect the eye of an ox, 
the brain of a sheep or calf or rabbit, and exhibit the skull 
of any domestic or wild animal. The cliief object of les- 
sons in anatomy and physiology is to make them tlie 
means of imparting a knowledge of the laws of health. 
Reiterate practical directions about cleanliness, ventila- 



174 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

tion, food, work, rest, play, sleep, and regular habits. 
Preach short sermons against idleness, gluttony, intem- 
perance, and impurity. Teach your pupils that without 
health life is a failure, and make them realize as fully as 
possible that they must themselves take care of their own 
health. 

8. In botany, begin with collecting and examining plants, 
and end in classifying and naming them by referring to 
text-books. " ]N"ow, to learn to classify," says Bain, " is 
itself an education. In these natural - history branches 
the art has been of necessity attended to, and is shown in 
the highest state of advancement. Botany is the most 
complete in its method, which is one of the recommen- 
dations of the science in early education. Mineralogy 
and zoology have greater difficulties to contend with ; so 
that where they succeed, their success is all the greater." 

0. First in the order of nature comes empirical knowl- 
edge; afterw\ards, scientific knowledge. Therefore, the 
younger the children, the less methodical should be their 
instruction. Beginners store up facts by items, often in 
an indirect and desultory manner. 

10. Mere text-book study of natural science, without ob- 
servation and experiment by the pupil, is oiot knowledge. 
The real guide to true knowledge is a habit of observing. 
"Learn to make a right use of your eyes," sa^^s Huojh 
Miller; "the commonest things are worth looking at, 
even stones, and weeds, and the most familiar animals." 
Agassiz says, " The difficult art of thinking, of comparing, 
of discriminating, can be more readily acquired by exam- 
ining natural objects for ourselves than in any other way." 

11. Skilful questioning by the teacher is the chief 
means of aw^akening thought, and of inducing pupils to 



OBJECT-LESSONS AND ELEMENTS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 175 

observe for themselves. Superintendent Eliot sajs, " We 
teach best when we seem to teach least. Tell the child 
a fact, and it is all your telling. Lead him to find it 
himself, and it seems to him all his finding. Because it 
seems so, he is interested in it, and his interest secures 
his mastery of it." 

12. Stimulate and encourage curiosity. Faraday says, 
" I am indebted to curiosity for whatever progress I have 
made in science. There are common experiments which 
I perform now with as much glee at the result as when I 
was a boy." Lead your pupils into the practice of pro- 
posing questions in the class. "If not snubbed and 
stunted," says Huxley, " by being told not to ask foolish 
questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving of 
a young child, nor any bounds to the slow but solid ac- 
cretion of knowledge, and the development of the think- 
ing faculty in this way." 

13. As to methods in specific lessons, the following di- 
rections by Superintendent Harris are to the point : " Pre- 
pare yourself beforehand on the subject of the lesson of 
the week, fixing in your mind exactly what subjects you 
will bring up, just what definitions and illustrations you 
will give or draw out of the class. All must be marked 
and written down in the form of a synopsis. The black- 
board is the most valuable appliance in oral lessons : on 
it should be WTitten the technical words discussed, the 
classification of tlie knowledge brought out in the recita- 
tion, and, whenever possible, illustrative drawings. Pains 
should be taken to select passages from the reference 
books, or from other books illustrative of the subject un- 
der discussion, to be read to the class with explanation 
and conversation. Wherever the subject is of such a nat- 



176 METHODS OF TEACHING-. 

lire as to allow of it, the teacher should bring in real ob- 
jects illustrative of it, and encourage the children to do 
the same. But more stress should be laid on a direct ap- 
peal to their experience, encouraging them to describe 
what they have seen and heard, and arousing habits of 
reflection, and enabling the pupil to acquire a good com- 
mand of language. Great care must be taken by the 
teacher not to burden the pupil with too many new tech- 
nical phrases at a time, nor to fall into the opposite error 
of using only the loose, common vocabulary of ordinary 
life, which lacks scientific precision." 

III. QUOTATIONS FROM EDUCATORS. 

I. " For discipline as Avell as for guidance, science is 
of the chiefest value. In all its effects, learning the value 
of things is better than learning the meaning of words. 
Whether for intellectual, moral, or religions training, the 
study of surrounding phenomena is immensely superior 
to the study of grammars and lexicons." — Spencer. 

II. " The processes by which truth is attained — reason- 
ing and observation — have been carried to their greatest 
known perfection in the physical sciences. As classical 
literature furnishes the most perfect types of the art of 
expression, so do the physical sciences those of the art of 
thinking. Mathematics, and its application to astronomy 
and natural philosophy, are the most complete example 
of the discovery of truths by reasoning ; experimental 
science, of their discovery by direct observation." — John 
Stuart Mill. 

III. " In childhood there is a vast capability of accu- 
mulating simple facts. The higher forms of mental ac- 
tivity not having come into exercise, the whole plastic 



OBJECT-LESSONS AND ELEMENTS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 177 

l^ower of the brain is devoted to the storing-np of per- 
ceptions, while the vigor of cerebral growth insures the 
highest intensity of mental adhesiveness. When curios- 
ity is freshest and the perceptions keenest, and the mem- 
ory most impressible, before the maturity of the reflective 
powers, the opening mind should be led to the art of no- 
ticing the aspects, properties, and simple relations of the 
surrounding objects of nature." — Youmans. 

ly. " But if scientific training is to yield its most emi- 
nent results, it must, I repeat, be made practical. That is 
to say, in explaining to a child the general phenomena of 
nature, you must, as far as possible, give reality to your 
teaching by object-lessons. In teaching him botan}^, he 
must handle the plants and dissect the flowers for him- 
self ; in teaching him physics and chemistry, you must 
not be solicitous to All him with information, but you 
must be careful that what he learns, he knows of his own 
knowledge. Don't be satisfied with telling him that a 
magnet attracts iron. Let him see that it does ; let him 
feel the pull of the one upon the other for himself. And, 
especially, tell him that it is his duty to doubt, until he is 
compelled by the absolute authority of nature to believe, 
that which is written in books. Pursue this discipline 
carefully and conscientiously, and you may make sure 
that, however scanty may be the measure of information 
which you have poured into the boy's mind, you have 
created an intellectual habit of priceless value in practical 
life." — Huxley. 

8'^ 



178 METHODS OF TEACniNG. 



ClIAPTEE IX. 
WRITING AND DRAWING. 

I. HINTS ON WRITING. 

1. Make a judicious use of whatever series of copy- 
books is officially adopted for your school. Penmanship 
is essential as a mechanical means for acquiring and con- 
veying information. But do not make your pupils slaves 
to "elements," "analysis," "proportion," "harmonies," 
and an endless series of engraved lessons. Penmanship 
is learned, in the main, by imitation and practice. 

2. With beginners, during the first school year, put 
your copies on the blackboard, and let your pupils imitate 
them on the blackboard. Little children like writing 
with chalk in large -hand, because the teacher and the 
class see their work. Follow these lessons by slate-work. 

3. Do not drill beginners on elements, principles, or 
analysis, but put them at once to writing short words, and 
then short sentences, as in reading. In fact, reading and 
writing ought to be carried Silong pa7'i passu. 

4. Bear in mind that many of the capital letters are no 
harder to make than are the small letters. 

5. In blackboard lessons, see that your pupils form the 
habit of holding a crayon properly, and give a drill lesson 
occasionally on large ovals to secure freedom of arm- 
movement. 

6. In slate writing, use only long pencils, and train 



WRITING AND DRAWING. 179 

yonr children to hold them as a ^en is held. Give fre- 
quent drill movements in making ovals, running m's, etc., 
in order to secure freedom of arm - movements and an 
easy way of holding the ]3encil. 

7. Give attention at every lesson to the manner of 
placing the slate upon the desk, and to the position of 
the pupil in writing,, It is exceedingly difficult to break 
up bad habits of holding a pencil, when the pencil is fol- 
lowed by a pen. 

8. Do not sit down in a chair behind your table, as 
some teachers do, but go about among your scholars, place 
their slates or books properly, take hold of their rigid 
fingers, and show tliem how to hold a pen easily and 
proj)erly. It is not enough to do tins 07ice, it must be 
continued for years. 

9. Train pupils from the beginning to write with a 
free and ready movement, not the slow, constrained, rigid, 
snail-like tracing that is often current in school. 

10. The use of engraved copy-books is indispensable 
in school, but they must not be relied on exclusively. 
Let copy-books alternate with blank-books in which to 
write maxims, rules of health, choice selections of prose 
and poetry, compositions, etc. When pupils are able to 
write a fair business hand, drop all copy-books, and rely 
on the written school exercises. Require weekly or 
monthly specimens from every pupil. 

11. Upon the lowest line of each page of the copy-book, 
require the pupil to write his name and age, the name of 
the school and class, and the date when the page was 
finished. 

12. Train your more advanced classes on the elements, 
and the analysis of forms. Point out the defects of bad 



180 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

forms and the merits of good forms. Eequire your pu- 
pils to make on the blackboards the capital letters on a 
laro^e scale, and let them criticise one another. 

13. Do not attempt to make the older scholars write 
a uniform " copy-book hand," but let them form their 
own characteristic style. The main thing is to make ev- 
ery letter legible. 

14. "Writing, like spelling and grammar, is capable of 
self-development, but not unless many of the books pre- 
pared uj)on purely mechanical principles give way to blank 
books or sheets, which our children may use with greater 
freedom of hand and of the will that guides it. The days 
of copy-setting were better than those of copy-engraving, 
for this reason, if for no other, that the teacher wrote for 
the pupils, as well as the pupils for him. If he went fur- 
ther, and encouraged them to write out passages in prose 
or verse, perhaps helping them a little in their choice, then 
those days were a great deal better, and we had better re- 
vive their practices." — Superintendent Eliot, 

15. " A corrupt taste in regard to writing has been for 
several years gradually creeping into our schools. This 
corruption consists in the substitution of a slender, faint, 
and weak kind of writing, with certain outlandish and 
fanciful capitals, for a good, honest, plain, neat, firm, clear, 
legible, strong, and regular hand." — John D. Pliilbrick. 

II. HINTS ON DRAWING. 

1. In schools where a series of text-books on drawing is 
adopted, teachers must master the instructions, require 
their pupils to fill out the drawing-books, and teach ac- 
cording to the system. 

2. But there is no good reason why the " book-work," 



WEITma AND DKAWING. 181 

often a piece of drudgery, should not be supplemented or 
introduced by exercises in harmony with the child's taste. 
" Send the primary children to the blackboards, and let 
them learn to handle a crayon by drawing anything they 
choose. A rude outline of a ship delights the miniature 
man more than a geometrical figure does. The little girl 
draws a rough house, but she invests it with wondrous 
beauties. Allow full play for what most drawing teachers 
are pleased to term ' barbaric art.' The child is a young 
savage ; let him pass through the barbarian stage before 
entering upon the scientific and artistic." 

In country schools, where no regular course of drawing 
is adopted, the teacher has a wide field for the exercise 
of tact, skill, and judgment. In addition to elementary 
exercises previously mentioned, the first four books of 
Krusi's Draining Series will furnish excellent copies which 
can be put upon the blackboard. 

Speaking of the Prussian schools, Horace Mann says, 
" The child is tauo^ht to draw things with wdiich he is fa- 
miliar, which have some significance, and which give him 
pleasing ideas. The practice of beginning with making 
inexpressive marks bears some resemblance, in its lifeless- 
ness, to that of learning the alphabet. Each exhales tor- 
por and stupidity to deaden the vivacity of the work." 

3. Supply the little ones with a " Kindergarten slate," 
ruled in small squares. The directions for its use are so 
simple that any teacher can understand them in an hour. 
" The simpler lessons of drawing," says Bain, " are obvi- 
ously easier than writing ; while the making of symmetri- 
cal shapes is more agreeable than forming letters. Proba- 
bly the natural course to follow would be the method of 
the Kindergarten, which is to train the hand upon mould- 



182 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

ing objects in clay, followed by cutting out paper figures, 
and gradually leading up to elementary drawing ; after 
wdiicli writing would come with comparative ease, but 
would still be a considerable step in advance, like begin- 
ning a trade." 

4. Children prefer blackboard drawing to exercises on 
slates or paper, because their drawings are on a larger 
scale, and because their work can be seen by the other 
children. Direct their feeble efforts, but leave full play 
to individuality. One may take to shij)s, another to dogs, 
a third to horses, a fourth to flowers. 

5. Violate all laws of the old-type drawing by encour- 
aging the children to bring in a box of paints, and then 
set them to work at coloring all the old picture-books and 
wood-cuts that you can collect. 

III. QUOTATIONS FROM EDUCATORS. 

I. " The spreading recognition of drawing as an element 
of education is one among many signs of the more ra- 
tional views on mental culture now beginning to prevail." 
— Spencer. 

II. " I look to music, drawing, natural-history lessons, 
elementary science, and object-lessons, to protect our chil- 
dren from over-education, and to make them love their 
childish work ; and were there no other reason for the in- 
troduction of such subjects into our common-schools than 
that, it seems to me that it would be reason sufficient." — 
Professor Wcdter S?mth, State Director of Art Education 
for State of Massachusetts. 

III. " It is now understood by well-informed persons 
that drawing is an essential branch of education, and that 
it should be taught to every child who is taught the three 



WRITING AND DKAWING. 183 

R's. It is indispensable as an element of general educa- 
tion, and it lies at the very foundation of all technical ed- 
ucation. It is difficult to conceive of any human occupa- 
tion to which education in this branch would not prove 
beneficial. Everybody needs a well -trained eye and a 
well-trained hand. Drawing is the proper means of im- 
parting this needed training. Drawing, properly taught, 
is calculated, even more than vocal music, perhaps, to fa- 
cilitate instruction in all other branches of education." — 
John D. Philbrick. 

lY. " Commercially speaking, the power to draw well 
is worth more in the market to-day than anything else 
taught in the public schools ; and education in industrial 
art is of more importance to the development of this 
country, and the increase of her wealth and reputation, 
than any other subject of common-school education. The 
intelligent, well-educated draughtsman is prepared for 
work in the great majority of industrial occupations, and 
in every country of the civilized world, wherever a work- 
shop exists." — Walter Smith. 

Y. "Drawing," says Superintendent Dickinson, " has for 
its object that training of the hand and eye which lays a 
foundation for skill in the arts. Such training leads to 
that appreciation of art necessary to create a demand for 
its products; it leads the mind to make a more careful 
examination of objects of study ; it furnishes the best 
method of describing those objects that have form and 
size ; it has a refining influence by cultivating the taste ; 
and it improves morals by exciting a love for the beau- 
tiful." — John IF. Dickinson, 



ISi METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chapter X. 

MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. 

I. MUSIC. 

1. " Of all the fine arts," says Bain, " the most available 
and influential is music. This is perhaps the most unex- 
ceptionable as well as the cheapest of human pleasures." 

2. Open and close your school with singing. If you 
cannot sing yourself, make up a small singing club, and 
let the leader conduct the exercises. 

3. Train your pupils carefully in respect to the follow- 
ing points : 

I. The proper position in singing. 

II. The right management of the breath. 

III. Singing with open mouth. 
lY. Melody. 

II. MANNERS. 

I. Children are supposed to learn manners at home, or 
to take them on unconsciously from intercourse with 
their schoolmates; but it is exceedingly desirable that 
manners should be made the subject of definite instruction 
in every school. It is said that the w^inning manners of 
Henry Clay were owing, in no small degree, to the careful 
training of one of his early teachers. 

II. " A beautiful behavior is the finest of the fine arts." 
— Emerson. 

III. " Give a boy address and accomplishments, and you 



MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. 185 

give liim tlie mastery of palaces and fortunes where lie 
goes." — Emerson. 

ly. "A noble and attractive every-day bearing comes 
of goodness, of sincerity, of refinement ; and these are 
bred in years, not moments. The principle that rules 
your life is the sure posture-master." — Huntington. 

Y. " I wish good behavior might enter into the curric- 
nlum of every school in our country. Under this head 
should be taught such things as how to gracefully enter 
a room, meet with the person upon whom the pupil is 
supposed to be calling, pass the compliments of the day, 
and peacefully and politely leave the room ; and to intro- 
duce parties in a proper manner ; and also under this head 
you may teach how to write notes of invitation and ac- 
ceptance." — J. II. French^ Principal of the State Normal 
School, Indiana, Pennsylvania. 

RULES OF POLITENESS. 

Note. — Let your pupils copy the following rules into 
their blank-books. Add other directions as circumstances 
may require, those given here being merely a suggestive 
model. Make each direction the subject of a conversa- 
tion w^ith your pupils. 

1. True politeness consists in having and showing due re- 
gard for the feelings, comfort, and convenience of others. 

2. Avoid giggling or tittering in school or in company. 

3. Avoid loud talking or laughing in school or in com- 
pany. 

4. Avoid the use of slang. 

6. Be particularly courteous to new scholars. 
G. Never laugh at the mistakes or blunders of other 
scholars or other persons. 



ISG METHODS OF TEACHING. 

7. Look persons in the eye when tliej speak to you, or 
wlien you speak to tliem. 

8. Whispering at lectures, places of amusement, or in 
public is both rude and vulgar. 

9. Be respectful to your elders in tone, look, and man- 
ner. 

10. Be as polite to your father and mother, and your 
brothers and sisters, as you are to strangers. 



PART III. 

WORKmG MODELS IN ESSENTIALS. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

It is bj no means to be iniderstood that the following 
" working models " in the essential school studies are the 
only methods by which good teachers can produce good 
results. The competent teacher who makes use of them 
will, of course, modify them to suit his own views, and 
use them as he may see fit to supplement the text-books 
in use in his school. It is hoped that they will be directly 
useful to inexperienced teachers by serving as model les- 
sons until they themselves form the habit of preparing 
and arranging at least a part of their w^ork independent 
of the school text-book. In country schools, where the 
teacher is allowed a wide range of discretion in methods 
and matter, these lessons may be available to a consid- 
erable extent. All of the following exercises are the 
result of the needs of a large city grammar and primary 
school, in wdiich, on account of unsuitable text-books, or 
a lack of books altogether, such lessons seemed essential 
in order to secure practical work. They have ail been 
tested by use in the hands of a large number of assistants; 
and, while few teachers will find time to use them all, it 



188 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

is hoped tliat every teacher will find some of them avail- 
able for his own use. " It is a defect pertaining to all 
models," says Eain, "that they contain individual peculi- 
arities mixed up with the ideal intention." 



WOEKING MODELS FOK EEADING-LESSONS. 189 



CllAPTEK I. 

WORKING MODELS FOR READING-LESSONS. 

Note. — Suggestions for teacliing beginners during their 
first year at school will be found in Sheldon's Manual of 
Reading^ Calkins's Manual^ or in any modern Primer, 
or First Reader. The following exercises are general in 
their character, and are only suggestive of w^hat may be 
done by any thoughtful teacher. Whatever method 
teachers begin with, after a limited number of words or 
sentences are learned by sight, cliildren must learn the 
letters and their powers, and must be trained in forming, 
w^^iting, and spelling words. 

I. LESSONS IN WORD-MAKING. 

1. Write or print on the blackboard the vowels a^ e, i, 
0, n, giving their na?7te sounds. Then to each of these 
add the letter t; thus, at, et, U, ot, ut. Next, form such 
words as can be made by prefixing a letter ; thus, bat, cat, 
fat, hat, mat, etc., and so on with each vowel. 

2. Take the letter h, combine it w^ith each of the vow- 
els, and then make words by prefixing letters, thus, cah, 
tub, etc. 

3. In a similar w\ay, take ad, ag, am, an, ap, ar, ed, id, od, 
etc. ; ach, eck, ick, ock ; ass, ess, iss, uss ; all, ell, ill. 

A. Continue similar construction lessons, as a relief from 
book or chart work. 



190 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



II. LESSONS FOR PRIMARY GRADES. 
[Second and third school years.] 

I. Read the lesson to the class. 

II. Alloio five minutes for ])ii]^ils to study it. 

III. Ex^plain any difficult words. 

IV. HeqiilTe jpujpils to read singly. 

QUESTIONING. 

After the lesson is read, question the pnpils about every 
sentence, making use of the following interrogatives : 



WlioJ 


What ? 


Why? 


Wliosef 


Where? 


Ilowf 


^Yllom^ 


When ? 





MODEL. 

Sentence. — " The merry boys skated on the i3ond in 
winter." 

[Note. — Require the answers to he in com2)Iete sentences.] 

1. Who skated on the pond in -winter? Ans. The merry boys, etc. 

2. What Mnd of boys skated, etc. ? Ans. The merry boys skated, 
etc. 

3. TF7/a^did the boys^Zc?.^ 

4. Where did the boys skate ? 

5. When did the boys skate ? 

REPRODUCING THE LESSON. 

After answering sncli questions as these, applied to 
every sentence, require pupils to write out the paragrapli 
on slates, exchange slates with each other, and correct by 
comparing with the book. 



WORKING MODELS FOE EEADING-LESSONS. 191 

III. MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES. 

Apply one to each readiDg-lesson. 

1, Copy the title or heading, and the first paragraph or stanza. 
3. Write the names of the things you can see in this picture. 

3. Learn the first stanza by heart. 

4. How many periods in this lesson ? How many question-marks ? 

5. Count all the commas in this lesson. 

G. How many words of one syllable in the first jDaragraph ? Of 
two syllables ? 

IV. LESSONS FOR LOWER GRAMMAR GRADES. 

Lesson L — Occupations. 

The farmer and gardener raise grain, vegetables, and fruit for our 
use. The farmer also supplies the market with milk, butter, cheese, 
cattle, sheep, wool, horses, poultry, and eggs. The miller grinds 
wheat and corn, and the baker makes bread. The butcher kills 
live-stock and sends to market beef, mutton, and pork. 

Our clothes are made by the labor of many hands. Men, women, 
and children in China, Italy, and France are kept busy in rearing 
silk-worms and reeling silk. Thousands of men are hard at work 
in our own country raising and loicking cotton, and thousands of 
farmers and sheep-raisers are shearing the wool from herds of sheep. 
Then there is the weaver, who makes the cloth ; and tlie tailor or 
dressmaker, who makes it into clothing. 

The tanner makes leather for us, and the shoemaker makes our 
boots and shoes. The carpenter and mason build us a house, the 
painter paints it, and the cabinet-maker makes the furniture. The 
bookseller supplies us witli books, and the printers sell us the news- 
paper. The tea which we drink at supper has been picked by busy 
hands in China. The coffee that we use at breakfast comes from the 
plantations of Brazil or Java, and the sugar witli which we sweeten 
it was made from the sugar-cane of Louisiana, It is wonderful to 
think how many trades there are, and how many busy hands are at 
work for our comfort or convenience. 



192 METHODS OF TEACIimG. 



QUESTIONS ON THE PRECEDING LESSON. 

Punctuation and Capitals. 

1. Call attention to the use of the comma in the numerous series 
of nouns, and then make up a rule. 

3. How many commas in the whole lesson ? 

3. Call attention to the proper nouns beginning with a capital. 
How many are there in all ? 

4. How many periods in this lesson ? How many sentences ? 
AYith what does each begin and end ? 

Parts or Speech. 

1. Write in columns all the nouns. How many are there ? 

2. How many nouns are plural ? How many are singular ? 

3. Write in columns all the verbs. How many ? 

4. How many times is the article the used in this lesson ? The 
article a or an f 

5. How many times is the preposition of used ? The preposition 
ill f 

6. How many times is the conjunction and used ? 

7. How many times is the relative pronoun icho used? How 
many times is icMcli used ? 

8. How many full sentences in this piece ? How many paragraphs ? 

9. Reproduce from memory the first paragraph ; the second. 

10. Compare with the original, and correct the punctuation. 

Lesson II. — A Story. 

There was once a prince who wished to marry a princess. He 
travelled all the world over in hopes of finding one. There were 
plenty of princesses, but he could not be certain that they were real 
ones. At last he gave up the search and went home quite cast 
down. 

One stormy evening there was a knock, and, on opening the door, 
a princess asked for shelter. The prince's mother went into the 
bedroom, took off* all the bedclothes from the bed, and jDut three 
little peas on the bedstead. She then laid twenty mattresses over 



WORKING MODELS FOR READING-LESSONS. 193 

the three peas, and put twenty feather beds over the mattresses. 
Then she put the princess to bed and tucked up the bedclothes. 

In the morning the queen asked her how she had slept. " Oh ! 
very badly indeed !" she replied ; " I hardly closed my eyes all night. 
There was something hard in my bed, and I am black and blue all 
over." 

It was now plain to the queen that this was a real princess, be- 
cause she was so delicate. So the prince married her, and put the 
three peas in a cabinet of curiosities, where they are still to be seen, 
if they have not been lost. — AdajJted from Hans Andersen, 

EXERCISES ON THE PRECEDING STORY. 

Sentences. 

1. How many sentences? 

2. How many paragraphs ? 

Parts of Speech. 

1. Make a list of the proper nouns. 

2. Make a list of the common nouns. 

3. How many verbs ? 

4. How many times is the verb 2S, or some form of it, used ? 

5. Make a list of the transitive verbs. 

6. How many nouns are in the nominative case ? In the objective 
case ? The possessive case ? 

7. Make a list of the personal pronouns. How many ? 

8. Make a list of the adjectives. 

9. Exchange slates,, and correct under the direction of the teacher. 

Punctuation. 

1. How many commas are used in this lesson ? 

2. The teacher will give the reason for the use of each comma, if 
the pupil is unable tG do so. 

3. Reason for the use of quotation-marks. 

Oral Exercise. 
Require several pupils to tell the story in their own language. 

9 



194: METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Reproduce the story from memory, exchange slates, and correct 
errors by comparing with the printed coj^y. 

V. LESSOIs^S FOR HIGHER GRAMMAR GRADES. 

Inventions and Inventors. 

The mariner's compass and the galvanic battery were invented in 
Italy. 

Germany claims the honor of inventing printing, and Holland of 
inventing the microscope. 

France has contributed to the w^orld photography, the Jacquard 
loom, the electro-magnet, and iron armor for ships. 

Great Britain has enriched the world with the steam-engine, the 
spinning-jenny, weaving-machines, the chronometer, the rolling-mill, 
the screw-propeller, iron ships, and the steam-plough. 

The United States has contributed the steamboat, the cotton-gin, 
the electric telegraph, the sewing-machine, vulcanized rubber, the 
steam fire - engine, revolving fire - arms, street - cars, reaping - ma- 
chines, pin-machines, cut-nail machines, and a great number of minor 
but very useful inventions. 

EXERCISES. 

Grammar. 

1. Make a list of the proper nouns in the above lesson. 

2. Make a list of the simple subjects, and of the verbs. 

3. How many simple sentences ? 

4. How many complex sentences ? 

5. How many compound sentences ? 

6. Parse each word in the first sentence. 

7. How many phrases beginning with ofl 

General. 

[Questions to be copied bj a class, with directions to 
learn the answers.] 

1. Tell the situation of each country named. 

2. Who invented the galvanic battery ? 

3. Who invented photography ? 



WORKING MODELS FOK KEADING-LESSONS. 195 

4. Who invented or improved the steam-engine ? When ? 

5. When and by whom was the cotton-gin invented ? 

G. The sewing - machine ? Steamboats ? The electric telegraph ? 
Vulcanized rubber ? 

Composition. 

Reproduce from memory, exchange and correct. 

Punctuation. 

Give tlie reasons for the use of each comma. 



196 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Chapter II. 

WORKING JNIODELS IN ARITHMETIC. 

SECTION I. LESSON FOR BEGINNERS ; AN ADAPTATION OF 

THE GRUBE SYSTEM. 

Grube's metliod consists in teaching beginners from 
four to six years of age, during the first year, all possible 
combinations and comparisons of numbers from 1 to 10. 
lie gives, in substance, the following 

Principles. 

1. "Each lesson in aritlimetic must be also a lesson in language. 
The teacher must insist on readiness and correctness of expression. 
As long as the language for the number is imi^erfect, the idea of the 
number will be defective." 

2. " The teacher must require the scholar to speak as much as pos- 
sible." 

3. " Answers should be given, sometimes by the class in concert, 
and sometimes by the scholar individually." 

4. "Every process must be illustrated by means of objects." 

5. " Measure each new number with the preceding ones." 

6. " Teachers must insist on neatness in making figures." 

Order of Steps. 
First Step. — Illustrate the required combinations by means of 
counters in the hands of the children themselves, and by other ob- 
jects in the hands of the teacher. Each child must be supplied 
with ten small square wooden blocks, like the blocks of a checker- 
board. If the blocks cannot be had, use shells, corn, pebbles, pins, 
sticks, buttons, etc. ]\Iakc use of a numeral frame, if there is one in 
school. 



WORKING- MODELS IN AKITIIMETIC. 107 

Second Ste^y. — Express the same combinations on the blackboard or 
on slates, both M'ith marls and with figures. 

Third Ste]). — Take the same combinations mentally with abstract 
numbers. 

Fourth Step. — Practical problems in applied numbers. 



HOW TO BEGIN. 

First Term or Year. 

Tlie time required for this work will depend upon 
the age of the children, as also upon their natural ability. 
Children from four to five years of age may require a 
year to complete it, while those of six years may master 
it in from three to five months. 

I. THE NUMBER ONE. 

1. Hold up one counter, one hand, one finger, one slate, etc. 

On your slates make one straight mark, one dot, one cross, 

etc. 
On the blackboards make one mark, one dot, one cross, etc. 

2. Place one counter on the middle of your desk ; take it away ; 

how many have you left ? 
Make one mark on your slate ; rub it out ; how many marks 
are left ? 

3. Send the class to the blackboards and let them make the mark 

for one — thus, | — and also the figure — thus, 1. 

II. THE NUMBER TWO. 

1. Eacli of you take one counter and place it by itself on your 
desk; now take another and place close to it; how many 
counters have you? (Require the answer in a full sen- 
tence.) 

Make one straight mark on your slate ; make another close to 
it ; how many have you now ? 

Go to the blackboards; make one mark; another close to it; 
how many now ? 



198 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Clap your hands once ; again ; how many claps? 
RajD on yonr desks once; agam; how many raps? 

2. Counting. — Place one counter on your desk; a little way off 

from the first one, place two counters close together ; 

thus, ^ % 
Count, one^ two; tico.^ one. 
On your slates make marks — thus, [, | |, and count forwards 

and backwards. 

3. Addition. — {a.) Place one counter on the desk ; place another 

counter close to it ; how many have you now ? Ans. I have 
two counters. How many counters are one counter and one 
counter ? Ans. One counter and one counter are two count- 
ers. 

[The teacher will further illustrate with books, pencils, crayons, 
etc.] 

(b.) Slate and BlacU)oard. — Make one mark ; another one near 
it. How many marks have you made ? 

[Continue with rings, dots, crosses, etc.] 

4. Subtraction. — {a.) Place two counters together on your desk; 

take one away ; how many have you left ? Ans. I have one 

left. One counter from two counters leaves how many? 

Ans. One counter from two counters leaves one counter. 
[Teacher will continue with fingers, hands, books, and other 

objects.] 
(b.) Slate and Blackboard. — Make two marks ; rub out one ; how 

many are left ? Make two marks ; rub them out ; how many 

are left? Ans. None are left. Two taken away from two 

leaves how many ? 

5. Midtipliccition. — («.) Each of you put one counter on the desk ; 

now i^ut another one Avith it; how many times have you 
taken one counter ? Ans. I have taken one counter twice. 

Two times one counter are how many counters ? Ans. Twice 
one counter are two counters. 

(b.) Slate and Blackboard. — Make one mark ; now another. How 
many times have you made one mark ? Ans. I have made 
one mark twice. Then two times one mark are how many 
marks? Ans. Two times one mark are two marks. 



WORKING MODELS IN AEITIIMETIC. 199 

6. Division. — Place two counters on the desk. Call up two boys 

and give one counter to each. Question thus : How many 
counters has John ? How many has Frank ? If two boys di- 
vide two counters between them, how many has each boy ? 
Show the similarity of the expressions 2 -i- 2 = 1, and | of 
2 = 1. 

7. Comixirison. — Give one counter to John and two to Frank. 

How many counters has John ? Frank ? How many has 
Frank more than John ? How many more is two than one ? 
How many counters has John less than Frank? Then one 
is one less than two. Blaclcboarcl. — Illustrate the same with 
marks. 

8. Applied Numlers. — {a.) Addition. 

1. John ate one apple at recess, and another apple at noon ; 
how many apples did he eat ? 

2. Frank had one dime, and his father gave him one more ; 
how many dimes did he have ? 

3. The teacher will make up ten similar questions. 

(b.) Midtiplication. — 1. John went a-fishing, and twice he caught 

one fish ; how many fishes did he catch ? 
The teacher will make up ten similar questions, 
(c.) Division. — 1. If two boys divide two marbles between them, 

how many Tvill each have ? 
Dictate ten similar questions. 

9. Figures and Signs. — Teach the use of the five signs +, — , 

X , -i-, =. Tell them that + means " and " or " added to," 
and that it is read ^'■plus;'''' that — means "taking away" 
or "less," and that it is read ^^ minus f^ that X means 
"times," and is read ^^ multiplied ly f that -r- means "con- 
tains," and that it is read ^Ulivided &?/;" that = means equal 
to, equals. 

-{- is called the sign of addition. 

— " " subtraction. 

X " " multiplication, 

-f- " " division. 

— " " equality. 



200 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE USE OF SIGNS. 

Let the cliildren make each combination first with the 
comiters. 

a. By Maries. l. By Figures. 

I + I =11 
ll-l =1 

|x|l = |I 



11^11 = 1 



1 + 1=2 

2 — 1 = 1 
1X2=2 
2-^l = 2 
2-f-2 = l 
lof2 = l 



10. Table to he TaufjU. 
2 pints make 1 quart. 
1 quart equals 2 pints. 



III. 


THE NUMBER THREE. 

1. Measuring. 




First illustrate by 


using counters. 




By One. 




By Two. 




1+1+1=3 




2+1 = 3 




3-1-1-1= 





1 + 2 = 3 




3-1-1=1 




1x2+1=3 




3 — 2 = 1 




3-2 = 1 




1X3 = 3 




3 -^ 2 = 1 and 1 remainder, or 


3X1=3 




i of 3 = 1 and 1 




3-^l = 3 








2. Second Forii 


h of Expressing. 




Add. Suit. 


Suit. 


Mult. Biv. 


Biv. 


1 3 
1 —1 
1 -1 
3 1 


3 

-2 
1 


1 1)3 
X 3 "3~ 
3 


2)3 



WOEKma MODELS IN AEITHMETIC. 



201 



Note. — Eead 3 -f- 1, at first, thus : " 1 is contained in 3 three times ;" 
1X3 thus : " 3 times 1 equals three." The idea of " to be con- 
tained" must precede the higher and more difficult conception of 
" dividing." 

3. Pmctice. 

1. How many are 3 — 1 — 1 + 2 divided by 1 ? 

2. 1 + 1 + 1 — 2 + 1 + 1— 2 + 1 + 1 = how many? 

4. Applied Numlers. 
The teacher will make uj) ten questions. 



IV. THE NUMBER FOUR. 



1. 3feasuring. 




^irst illustrate by using counters. 




By One. 


Bij Ttco. 


1+1+1+1=4 




2 + 2 = 4 


4—1—1—1—1=0 




4-2 = 2 


4--1 — 1 — 1 = 1 




2X2 = 4 


1 X4 = 4 




4 -f- 2 = 2, or 


4x1=4 




iof4 = 3 


4-^1=4 







Bt/ Threfi, 



3 + 1 = 4 
1 + 3 = 4 
IX 3 + 1 
3X 1 + 1: 


= 4 
= 4 


4-3 = 1 
4-1 = 3 

4-^3 = 1 and 1 r., or 
*of4 = U 




2. Second Form of Writing. 


Add. Add. 
2 3 

+ 2 +1 


Suit. Su 
4 

o 


U. Mult. Mult. Div. 
4 2 1 2)4 
3X2 X4 2 



202 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

3. Practice. 
1. 2X2 — 3 + 2x1 + 1 — 3X 2 = liowmany? 
The teacher will give ten similar questions. 

4. ComUnations. 

1. What number must we double to get 4 ? 

2. 2 is one half of what number ? 

3. 1 is the fourth part of what number ? 

Give similar questions. 

5. Practical Illustrations. 

1. Name 4 animals that have only 2 legs, 

2. Name 4 animals that have 4 legs each. 

3. Name a thing that has 4 legs. 

4. Name a thing that has 3 legs. 

6. TaNe to be Learned. 
4 gills make 1 pint. 
2 pints make 1 quart. 
4 quarts make 1 gallon. 

Pass around the class a pint measure and a quart meas- 
ure, and then make up numberless practical examples. 

V. THE NUMBER FIVE. 

First, combinations with counters. 

1. Pleasuring. 
By One. By Two. 



1+1+1+1+1=5 

5 — 1 — 1 — 1 — 1 — 1 =: 

5_1_1_1_1=,1 
1 X 5 = 5 
5X 1=5 
5-^1 = 5 



2+2+1=5 
5—2—2=1 
2X 2 + 1 = 5 
5 ^ 2 = 2 andl r. 
1 of 5 = 21 



WOEKINQ MODELS IN AKITIIMETIC. 



203 



By Three. 
3 + 2 = 5 
2 + 3 = 5 
5 — 2 = 3 
5 — 3 = 2 
1 X 3 + 2 = 5 
5 -^ 3 = 1, 2 r. 
^of5 = lf 



By Four. 

4 + 1 = 5 
1 + 4 = 5 

5 — 4 = 1 
5-1=4 
1x4+1=5 
5-^4 = 1, Ir. 



iof5 



li 



2. Practice. 
1.5 — 2 — 3 + 2x2 = how many ? 
3. 3x2+1 — 3X1 +2-^4 = ? 



3. Applied JSPumlers. 
The teacher will make up at least ten simple questions. 



VI. THE NUMBER SIX. 

1. Illustration. 

(a.) Place six counters in a row, count forwards and backwards. 

{b.) Make six marks on slates — thus, | | | | j |- Count forwards 
and backwards. 

(c.) Make figures — thus, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Count forwards and back- 
wards. 

2. Addition. 
Illustrate the following combinations first with count- 
ers, next w^ith marks : 

1 + 5 



1 + 1 


1 + 2 


1 + 3 


1 + 4 


2 + 1 


2+2 


2 + 3 


2 + 4 


3 + 1 


3 + 2 


3 + 3 




4 + 1 


4 + 2 






5 + 1 









204 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



3. Subtraction. 
Illustrate as in addition. 



1-1 


2 2 


3 — 3 


4-4 


2-1 


3-2 


4-3 


5-4 


3 — 1 


4-2 


5-3 


6-4 


4-1 


5-2 


6-3 




5 — 1 


C-2 






C-1 




- 





6-6 



4. Analysis. 



1+1+1+1+1+1 

6=r2+l + l + l + l 

6=2+2+1+1 

6=2+2+2 

6=3+1+1+1 



6=3+2+1 
6 = 3 + 3 
6=4+1+1 
6 = 4 + 2 
6 = 5 + 1 



Write the preceding in the second form. 



5. Multiplication. 



1 X 1 = ? 
1 X 2 = ? 
1X3 = ? 
1X4 = ? 
1 X5 = ? 
1 X6 = ? 



2X 1 = ? 
2x 2 = ? 
2X 3 = ? 



3X1 = ? 

3X 2 = ? 



AYrite the preceding in the second form. 



lx4 = ? 
lx5 = ? 
1X6 = ? 



2^2 
3-^2 
4-^2 
5-^2 
6-^2 



3-^3 
4-^3 
5-f-3 
64-3 



6. Division. 
4^4 
5-f-4 
6-^4 



5H-5 
6-f-5 



6-^6 



WOEKING MODELS IN AKITHMETIC. 



205 



7. Exercise idUTi Counters. 
1. Place two counters together; two more ; two more ; liow many 
counters ? 

3. How many times two counters ? 

3. How many times are two counters contained in six counters ? 

4. Place three counters together; three more; how many? 

5. How many times three counters ? 
C. Etc. 

8. Division. — Another Form. 

1 of 4 = 1 



lof3 = l 




^ of 3 = 1 




•i of 3 = 11 

iof4 = 3'' 




iof4 = l, Ir. 
^ of 5 = 1, 3 r. 




iof5 = 2l 




i of 6 = 3 




lof6 = 3 










r 


. Division.— Begular Form. 


rite thus : 


3)3 
1 


2)3 3)4 


etc. 



lof5 



H 



1 of 6 = If 



10. Comparison. 



6 is 1 more than 5 
6 is 3 more than 4 
6 is 3 more than 8 
6 is 4 more than 3 
6 is 5 more than 1 



1 is 5 less than 6 
3 is 4 less than 6 

3 is 3 less than 6 

4 is 3 less than 6 

5 is 1 less than 6 



All these examples are to be given promisciiouslj as 
well as in regular order. 

[Proceed in a similar manner with the numbers seven, 
eight, and nine.] 



VII. THE NUMBER TEN. 

1. Illustration. 
{a.) Place ten counters on the desk. 
(5.) Make ten marks on the slate or board. 



206 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



(c.) Make tlie figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, G, 7, 8, 9, 10. 
(d.) Count forwards and backwards. 

2. 3Ieasurement. 
Measuring by counters. 

1. How many twos in ten ? 

2. How many threes in ten ? 

3. How many/oz«'S,j^y^s, sixes^ etc. ? 

3. Conibinations. 

Let pupils make all the combinations they can that 
shall equal ten — thus : 

2 + 2 + 2 + 24-2 = 10 
3 + 3 + 3+1=10 
5 + 5 = 10 
4 + 4 + 2 = 10, etc. 



4. Second Form of Expressing. 
Put the same into the regular form of addition- 



-thus : 



3 

1 

lo" 



Correct Way. — One, four, seven, ten. 
Incorrect Way. — One and tliree are four, and three are 
seven, and three are ten. 



5. MuUijjUcation. 



1 X 1 = 1 

IX 2 = 2 
1 X 3 = 3 
1 X4 = 4 
1 X 5 = 5 
etc. to 10 



2X1=2 
2X2=4 
2X3=0 
2X4=8 
2 X 5 = 10 



3x1 = 3 
3 X 2 = 6 
3x3 = 9 



4X 1=4 

4x 2 = 8 



6. Division. 



2-=-2 = ? 
3-v-2 = ? 

4-r-2 = ? 

etc. to 10 



3-r-3 = ? 
4-^3 = ? 
5-^3 = ? 
etc. to 10 



4-f-4 = ? 

5-r-4 = ? 

C-^4 = ? 
etc. to 10 



5-^5 = ? 
G-^5 = ? 

7^5 = ? 
etc. to 10 



WOEKma MODELS IN AKITHMETIO. 



207 





7. 


Another Form of Dki 


sion. 




i0f2r=? 




-i-of3 = ? 






iof4 = ? 


iof3==? 




iof4 = ? 






iof5 = ? 


iof4 = ? 




iof5 = ? 






i of 6 = ? 


etc. to 10 




etc. to 10 






etc. to 10 



I. Anotlier Form of Division. 



2)2 
1 



2)3_ 

n 



2)£ 
2 



2)5 

2i 



etc. to 10 



In the same way divide by three, four, and five. 



9. Comparison. 



10 is 1 more tlian 9 
10 is 2 more than 8 
10 is 3 more than 7 
10 is 4 more than 6 
10 is 5 more than 5 
etc. to 10 



1 is 9 less than 10 

2 is 8 less than 10 

3 is 7 less than 10 

4 is 6 less than 10 

5 is 5 less than 10 

etc. to 10 



All these comparisons are to be given promiscuously as 



well as in regular order. 



10. Concrete Examples. 

Teachers will make up from ten to twenty concrete ex- 
amples. 



SECTION II. SECOND TERM OR YEAR. 

I. NUMBERS FROM TEN TO TWENTY. 

1. Illustration with the number nineteen. 

1. Place the counters on the desk. 

2. Make marks on the slate or board. 

3. Make the figures from one to nineteen. 

4. Count forwards and backwards. 



208 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2. Measuring by counters. 

1, How many ticos in nineteen ? 
3. How many threes, etc., to nines f 

3. Addition TaUe. 

1 + 2 + 3, etc., to 19 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 = 19 9+9 + 1 = 19 

2 + 3 + 3, etc., + 1 to 19 + 6 + + 1 = 19 
3 + 3_^ 3, etc., to 19 7 + 7 + 5 = 19 

4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 3 = 19 8 + 8 + 3 = 19 

Put the preceding also into vertical columns. 

4. Let scholars make as many combinations as possible equal to 
nineteen. 

5. Subtraction. — Reverse tlie tables for addition. 
0. Multiplication. 

1X2 11X3 11X3 11X4 11X5 
1X3 to 19 I 2X2 to 9 I 3x3 to I 3x4 to 4 I 3x5 to 3 

7. Division. 

19 -^ 1, 19 -^ 3, 19 -^ 3, up to 19. 

8. Miscellaneous Exercises. 



8 + 4 = 13 


3+3+3—8=1 


3X 3X 3 = 18 


7 + 5 + = 18 


12-f-G = 2 


4X3X1 = 13 


19_4 = 15 


17_^4=4, Ir. 


16-^8 = 3 


19-9 = 10 


16—12 = 4 


18-r-9 = 3 


3X0 = 18 


2 X 2 X 2 = 8 


18-^5 = 3, 3 r. 


ie-f-4 = 4 


17_9 + 9 = r^ 


19-^4=4,3 r. 


5+9-7=7 


94-9_11^7 





TaUe to le Learned. 

13 inches = 1 foot. I 10 ounces = 1 pound. 

3 feet = 1 yard. I 

Note. — The inch, foot, and yard to be drawn repeatedly 
on the board by pnpils. An ounce weight and a pound 
w^eight must be passed around in the class. 



WOKKING MODELS IN ARITHMETIC. 209 

II. FRACTIONS. 

Directions. — Illustrate halves, thirds, etc., by breaking 
up crayons, cutting up aj^ples, or by breaking slips of 
wood. Having shown your pupils how one half is made 
and how one half is written, send them to the blackboards, 
saying nothing whatever about numerator or denominator, 
and drill them on numberless examples like the following : 

1. One Half. 
3. i + i + ^+* + i + i = l = 3; etc. 



etc. 



I^ote. — Give a great many drill examples like the pre- 
ceding, and keep your little scholars busy on such simple 
questions until they become expert in their work. Do 
not be in a hurry to proceed immediately, after the man- 
ner of text -books, to crowd a dozen new things upon 
them. 





3. Mixed Numlers. 




2i 


6 =5S H 


4 


G 


2i = 2* 4 


2i 







3. Conibinations. 


i + i==i: 


-1 


i + i = t i4-i==| = i 


-i-i = i, 


or 


f-i = i |_i = i,or 


l-i=i 




ixi = -^ i-i-=i 


ixi = i 




i--i=zl iXi^rV 


i-r-i=l 




4. Addition. 




l + i + i + i + i + i + i + i + i=f = 



^'T)/^. — Send the class to tlie boards and give twenty 
similar examples. 



210 



METHODS OF TEACHING-. 







5. Addition. 




H 


H 


H 


Ci 


5i 


H 


H 


Si 


H 


2* 


H 


4J 


5i 


H 


3* 


H 


1* 


H 


H 


H 


12 


11* 


13 


I'l 


14t 



JVote.^Give at least one Imndred similar drill examples, 
in ten snccessiv^e lessons. 





6. Multiplication. 




1X1=:1 


JX1=:J 


1x1=4 


1X2=1=1 


JX3 = t 


ixa=3=4 


1X3 = 1 = 11 


JX3=J=1 


ix3 = f 


iX4=t=2 


JX4 = f = ]J 


iX4=i=l 


etc. 


ctc. 


etc. 



24 



Second Form. — Mixed Niimlers. 



3 
131 



n 



5h 



_3^ 

To" 



Si 



2i 

4 
"9" 



7. Division and Multiplication. 
Division. Mult indication. 



1 


-^2 = 


* 


1 


^3 = 


* 


1 


-^4 = 


i 


etc., 


to tenths 



1 



X 2 



J- X 4 = 1 = 1 
etc., to tenths. 



8. Decimal Fractions. [^Tentlis.] 
Directions. — Send your pupils to the blackboards, and 
let them write and read examples like the following, with- 
out going into any philosophical exphmation whatever. 
At this stage, the point is to do something. 



WOKKING MODELS IN AKITHMETIC. 211 



Addition. 








Suttraction. 


(!•) 


_2 4- .2 := 


A 






(2.).4- 


.2 = .2 


(-•) 


.3 + .3 = 


6 






(4.).6- 


.3 = .3 


(•5.) 


A-i-.^=: 


.7 






(6.).7- 


.4^.3 


Give at least ten lessons, each containing from 


twenty similar examples. 












Second Form. 






(1.) 


(2.) 


(3.) 


(4.) 


(5.) 


(6.) 


.2 


.3 


A 


.4 


.G 


.7 


.2 


.3 


.3 


_2 


— .3 


-.4 


A 


.0 


.7 
9. 


.2 
Addition. 


.3 


.3 


.2 


.5 




1.2 


1.3 


2.2 


.3 


.0 




1.3 


1.4 


3.3 


.2 


A 




1.5 


1.5 


4.4 


.7 


1.5 




4.0 


4:2" 


9.9 



Send the class to the boards and give similar examples. 

• 10, Multiplication. 

.2x1 =.2 .2x4 =.8 .2X7 = 1.4 

.2X2 = .4 .2X5 = 1.0 .2X8 = 1.6 

.2 X 3 = .6 .2 X 6 = 1.2 .2x9 = 1.8 

In the same way take .3, .4, .5. 

11. Addition of Common and Decimal Fractions. 
(1.) (2.) (3.) 

11 = 1.5 
11 = 1.5 
11= 1.5 

if=i:5 

12. TaUe. 
10 cents 1 clime. 
10 dimes 1 dollar. 
Pass a dollar, a dime, and a cent around the class, and 
give easy practical questions. Make the sign of dollars, 
and give simple questions in adding dollars. 



1= .5 
h= .5 


21 = 2.5 
31 = 3.5 
41 = 4.5 


11 = 1.5 


101 = 10.5 



212 



METHODS OF TEACniNG. 





13. Decimals. 










Multiplication. 




Division. 




1. 


.2X4= .8 




2. 


.8 ^4 = .2 




3. 


.3X3= .9 




4. 


,9 -^3 = .3 




5. 


.4X4 = 1.6 




6. 


1.6 -f- 4 = .4 




7. 


.7 X 2 = 1.4, etc. 




8. 


1.4 -^ 2 = .7 






14. Multiijlicatioi 


^. 






.2 


.3 .4 .7 


.7 


.6 


.5 


4 


3 4 i 




3 


2 


2 



1.0 



1.4 



2.1 



1.2 



1.0 



.8 .9 

Tlie teaclier will give five lessons of five examples each, 
similar to tlie above. 



SECTION III. TIIIED YEAE OK TEEM. 

1. Adding hy tens, ticenties, thirties, forties, etc. 

Models. 



(1.) 

10 


(2.) 
20 


(3.) 
30 


(4.) 
40 


(5.) 
50 


(6.) 
90 


10 


20 


80 


40 


50 


90 


10 

30 


20 
60 


30 
90 


40 
120 


50 
150 


90 
270 



Divide eacli amount in tlie preceding examples by 3— thus: 

3)30 3)150 

/ — I etc. 

10 50 

The teacher will give five similar lessons of ten exam- 
ples each. 



2. Multiplying and dividing tens, twenties, thirties, forties, etc., hj one, 
tico, three, etc., to ten. 

Model of Blackboard Worh. 

Div. Midt. 



Midt. 
10 X 2 = 20 
10 X 3 = 30 
10 X 4 = 40 

etc. 



20-^-2 = 10 
30 -H 3 = 10 
40 -r- 4 = 10 
etc. 



50 X 2 = 100 
50 X 3 = 150 
50 X 4 = 200 
etc. 



Dii\ 
100 -f- 2 = 50 
150^3 = 50 
200-^4 = 50 
etc. 



WOEKma MODELS IN AEITHMETIC. 213 

3. Decimals. — Dollars and Cents. 
Dictate luindreds of simple examples like the fol- 



lowing : 










(1-) 




(2.) (3.) 


(4.) 


(5.) 


$10 




$25 $1.25 


$4.40 


$0.10 


$12 




$25 $2.25 


$4.50 


$0.25 


$13 




$50 $3.25 


$4.G0 
(3.) 


$0.50 


(1.) 


(2.) 


(4.) 


$i = 


.50 


$i r= .25 


$tV = .io 


$f = .75 


$i = 


.50 


$i = .25 


$tV=.io 


$f= .75 


$i= .50 

$11 =z $1.50 


$i = .25 
If = .75 


$A = -io 

$f^ = .'30 


$f = .75 
|2i = 12.25 



4. /Sfo^d «?zc2 Blackboard Drill. 
Multi'plication. Division. 

1. $1.25 X 3 - ? 
3. $2.75 X 4 = ? 
5. $1,121 X 2 = ? 
7. $2.37i X 4 = ? 
9. $1.05 X 3 = ? 



2. $ 3.75 -T- 3 = ? 

4. $11.00 -T-4 = ? 

6. $ 2.25 -^ 2 r= ? 

8. $ 9.50-^4 = ? 

10. $ 3.15^3==? 



The teacher will dictate five similar lessons of ten ex- 
amples each. 

5. Table of Federal Money to be Learned. 



SECTION IV. — DRILL EXEECISES IN THE FOUR KULES. 
I. ADDITION. 

Direction. — Put this table on the blackboard ; with a 
pointer, point oiit successively different numbers to be 
combined with the number at the head of tlie column. 
As, pointing to 11, the combination w^ill be 5 + 11 =: 16-, 
etc. Let the class answer in concert and singly. 



214 



MEXnODS OF TEACHING. 



Acid the first column under " 5 " downwards and up- 
wards, until the scholar has thoroughly mastered it. Do 
not allow pupils to repeat five and ten are fifteen, five 
and six are eleven, five and eleven are sixteen, etc., but 
require them to point on the blackboard to each figure 
in the column, and give only results; downwards thus: 
15, 11, 16, 10, 9, 6, 8, 12, 17, 11, 7, 13; upwards, 13, 7, 11, 
17, 12, 8, 6, 9, 10, 16, 11, 15. 

Add the other columns in the same manner. 



5 


2 


3 


4 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


10 


12 


7 


5 


4 


12 


o 


9 


11 


G 


3 


9 


3 


9 


9 


2 


G 


4 


11 


G 


4 


G 


6 


11 


7 


12 


G 


5 


4 


8 


10 


10 


5 


8 


7 


10 


4 


9 


G 


4 


12 


10 


12 


11 


5 


1 


7 


12 


1 


7 


4 


10 


4 


3 


3 


2 


3 


11 


11 


G 


9 


10 


7 


7 


11 


5 


9 


3 


3 


11 


3 


12 


12 


5 


10 


12 


8 


2 


G 


1 


9 


9 


1 


1 


7 


5 


7 


5 


5 


2 


2 


8 


11 


2 


2 


1 


4 


8 


8 


8 


10 


2 


8 


1 


8 


1 


2 


1 



II. SUBTRACTION. 



6 


2 


3 


4 


8 


5 


10 


7 


9 


15 


12 


9 


13 


14 


11 


10 


17 


12 


10 


9 


11 


10 


18 


15 


15 


13 


9 


9 


7 


5 


14 


12 


13 


20 


8 


19 


IG 


11 


12 


12 


16 


9 


14 


7 


17 


14 


8 


10 


4 


13 


5 


IG 


10 


14 


12 


6 


8 


G 


11 


8 


11 


14 


18 


8 


10 


G 


9 


9 


G 


17 


11 


15 


11 


5 


4 


5 


15 


10 


13 


IG 


10 


G 


3 


7 


8 


8 


7 


12 


12 


13 


13 


2 


o 

O 


7 


10 


12 


19 


9 


11 



WORKING MODELS IN AEITHMETIC. 



215 



III. MULTIPLICATION. 



4 


3 


6 


y 


2 


5 


7 


8 


10 


11 


12 


9 


o 
O 


G 


11 


8 


10 


8 


3 


10 


12 


12 


12 


4 


12 


10 


11 


12 


12 


6 


8 


1 


G 


10 


8 


i 


1 


10 


1 


10 


12 


12 


11 


1 


2 


12 


11 


4 


G 


4 


9 


9 


G 


4 


2 


11 


10 


9 


12 


5 


8 


4 


5 


1 


8 


4 


8 


5 


4 


2 


4 


9 


1 


4 


2 


G 


8 


7 


6 


10 


6 


1 


3 


3 


1 


4 


4 


o 


4 


11 


8 


8 


3 


7 


6 


8 


3 


5 


11 


G 


9 


3 


5 


9 


5 


5 


7 


9 


i 


7 


3 


7 


1 


7 


2 


2 


11 


10 


5 


10 


10 


5 


2 


5 


9 


7 


G 


2 


2 


11 


2 


5 


1 


1 


2 


3 


12 


11 


7 


11 


2 


4 


9 



IV. f)IVISION. 

Under the head of " 7," giving only results ; down- 
wards thns : 5, 8, 12, 6, 1, 2, 7, 10, 3, 4, 9, 11 ; upwards, 11, 
9,4,3,10,7,2,1,6,12,8,5. 



7 


2 


3 


4 


5 


8 


6 


1 12 


9 


11 


10 


35 


10 


33 


44 


50 


72 


48 


36 


36 


11 


90 


56 


16 


27 


16 


35 


96 


18 


GO 


18 


132 


60 


84 


24 


12 


24 


45 


56 


60 


108 


54 


33 


70 


42 


12 


15 


8 


GO 


40 


12 


84 


90 


22 


50 


7 


2 


30 


4 


40 


88 


36 


132 


72 


121 


80 


14 


4 


21 


20 


25 


8 


24 


144 


108 


110 


40 


49 


14 


6 


32 


5 


32 


6 


96 


99 


44 


100 


70 


20 


3 


48 


10 


48 


m 


120 


9 


88 


30 


21 


G 


18 


36 


15 


■[Q 


30 


72 


G3 


55 


110 


28 


8 


36 


28 


30 


80 


42 


24 


81 


77 


20 


G3 


18 


24 


40 


20 


24 


72 


48 


45 


66 


120 


77 


22 


15 


12 


55 


64 


54 


12 


27 


99 


10 



SECTION V. WORKING MODELS IN COMMON FRACTIONS. 

I. MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING A FRACTION BY A WHOLE NUMBER. 

JSfote. — There will be no difficulty in lessons like the 
following, if the teacher will let technical terms alone. 



216 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



take onlj one thing at a time, and drill upon it until it is 
fixed in the mind by practice. The first steps must be 
illustrated by broken crayons or sticks. 



Oral Lesson. 

1. How many fourths are 2 times J ? 
Ans. Two times i are |, and | = -i-. 

2. What is i of I? Ans. I. 

3. What is i of i? Ans. I. 

4. Multiply I by 3. 

5. Divide | by 3. 



Multiply. 
1. i by 5 



5. fo by 3 
7. ^1 by 5 
9. /^ by 2 



Divide. 
2. f by 5 
4. I by 3 
6. ^ by 3 
8. i£ by 5 



10. 



by 3 



II. MULTIPLYING BY A FRACTION. 

1. Oral Questions. 

1. What is one half of 4 ? 

2. What is the product of 4 multiplied by ^ ? 

3. What is one half of 12? 

4. 12 multiplied by i = ? 

5. What is i of 5 ? 

6. Multiply 5 by i. 

Exercises. 

1. Find one half of each of the even numbers from 2 to 20. 

2. Multiply each of the even numbers from 2 to 20 by ^ 

3. Find one half of each of the odd numbers from 1 to 19. 

4. Multiply by i each of the odd numbers from 1 to 19. 

5. Find one half of 20, 40, GO, 80, 100. 

C. Multiply by i each of tlie following: 20, 40, GO, 80, 100. 



AVORKING MODELS IN AEITHMETIC. 217 

3. Slate and BlacMioard Drill. 
1. The question " What is one half of 4 " is expressed thus in 
written arithmetic : Multiply 4 by ^-. 

Slate Work— 4: X | = ? 4-^2 = 3. Ans. 
Bule. — Divide the number by 3. 

In a similar manner perform each of the following : 

1. Multiply each of the even numbers from 3 to 100 by i. 

2. Multiply each of the odd numbers from 3 to 99 by |. 

III. MULTIPLYING BY A FRACTION. 

1. Oral Questions. 

1. What is i of 8? 

2. Multiply 8 by i. 

3. What is the product of 8 multiplied by ^ ? 

4. How do you multiply 8 by ^ ? 
Ans. By dividing 8 by 4, 

5. Find i of 13, 16, 20, 34, 38, 33, 36, 40, 44, 48. 

6. Multiply each of the preceding numbers by ^. 

7. Findiof40,80,130, 160. 

8. Find i of 9, 13, 17, 31, 35, 39, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49. 

3. Slate and Blaclcboard Drill. 

Form of Slate WorTc. 
1. Multiply 8 by i. 

8Xi = ? 

8 -^ 4 = 3. 
Bule. — Divide the number by 4. 

Exercises. 
1. Put each of the oral questions in the preceding lesson into 

slate work. 
3. Multiply each of the even numbers from 4 to 100 by i. 

3. Multiply each of the odd numbers from 5 to 99 by ^. 

4. Multiply every number that ends with a cipher from 10 to 100 

hyi. 

5. Multiply every number ending in 5 from 15 to 105 by 1. 

10 



218 METHODS OF TEACUING. 



IV. DIVIDING BY A FRACTION. 

1. Oral. 

1. How many times is ^ contained in 3 ? 

2. How can you show it ? 

Ans. By taking 2 crayons and breaking tliem into halves. 
Do it. 

3. How many times is -^ contained in 4 ? 

Show it by drawing on the blackboard a line four inches long, 
and then dividing into half-inches. 

4. Divide 2 by i 

5. Divide 4 by ^. 

6. What is the quotient of 2 divided by ^. 

7. Find the quotient of 4 divided by ^. 

8. 2-^i = ? 4-^l = ? 

Exercises. 

Mule. — Multiply the number by 2. 

1. Divide each of the even numbers from 2 to 100 by ^. 

2. Divide each of the odd numbers from 3 to 100 by ^. 

3. Divide by ^ each of the numbers ending in a cii^her from 10 
to 100. 

4. Divide by |- each number from 15 to 105 ending in 5. 

2. Slate and Blackloard Drill. 
Questions like the preceding are put into the form of 
written arithmetic accordino: to the f olio win ir 



1. What is 5 times ^ 



Model. 



iX5 = f. 1 a^5=i. 

Require the class to put each of the preceding ques- 
tions into the form of written arithmetic, and then dictate 
ten examples, using larger numbers. 



WORKING MODELS IN APJTIIMETIC. 219 



MAR-SCHOOL GRADES. 

Note. — In undertaking to train pnpils to a clear concep- 
tion of analytical processes in common fractions, it is de- 
sirable to proceed slowly, taking a great number of easy 
operations limited to small numbers upon each new proc- 
ess. In the following lessons the analytical method is pur- 
sued exclusively, and only one method is given. Teachers 
who desire to add other explanations can do so ; but, in 
the beginning, it is best not to confuse the minds of pu- 
pils with too many things at once. 

I. MULTIPLYING AND DIVIDING BY A FRACTION. 

1. Oral Drill 

1. What is f of 20? 

Analysis. — Since i of 20 is 5, f will be 3 times 5, or 15. 

2. How many times is f contained in 15 ? 

Analysis. — Since ^ is contained 4 times 15, or GO times, f will 
be contained ^ of 60, or 20 times. 

3. What is the product of 20 multiplied by | ? 

4. What is the quotient of 16 divided by f ? , 

5. Multiply 12 by f. 

6. Divide 9 by f . 

7. What is f times 24 ? 

8. How many times is f contained in 24 ? 

9. Find | of 100. 

10. How many times is | contained in 20 ? 



220 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



2. Slate and BlacBjoard Drill. 



MaUi^jlicaUon. 
Ilodel 1. 20 X f = ? 
20 -^ 4 = 5. 
5 X 3 = 15. Ans. 
Analysis. — Divide 20 by 4 to find 
J, and multiply the quotient 5 
by 3 to find f . 



Division. 
Model 2. 15 -^ f = ? 
15 X 4 = GO. 
GO -^ 3 = 20. Ans. 
Analysis. — MultijDly 15 by 4 to 
find how many times i is con- 
tained in 15, and divide the 
product GO by 3 to find how 
many times f is contained in 15. 



Examples. 



1. 900 X t = ? 


2. GOO - 


-f = ? 


3. 1200 Xf==? 


4. 900 - 


^-f = ? 


5. $1600 X f = ? 


6. $1000- 


-$f = 


7. $10,000 X f = ? 


8. $8000- 


-$i = 


9. 1728 in. X /o = ? 


10. 1728 - 


-f = ? 


II. MULTIPLICATION AND DIVISION OF FRACTIONS. 


1. Ora 


I Drill. 





1. What is 1 of i? Ans. i. 

2. How do you find ^ of any number ? 
Ans. By dividing it by 2. 

3. How do you divide ^ by 2 ? 

Ans. By multiplying the denominator by 2. 

4. In what other way can you show this ? 
Ans. i = I, and |- of | = J. 

5. How many times is ^ contained in J ? 
Ans. ^ a time. 

6. How do you divide any number by -| ? 
Ans. By multiplying it by 2. 

7. How do you divide i by ^ ? 

Ans. By multijDlying ^ by 2, and this is done by dividing the 
denominator 4 by 2. 

8. In what other way can you show this ? 



WORKING MODELS IN AKITIIMETIC. 221 

Ans. -1 = 1, and f is contained in l as many times as 2 is con- 
tained in 1, which is l a time. 
9. What is 1 of 1 ? Ans. i Why ? 

10. How many times is -^ contained in -| ? 
Ans. 1 of a time. Show why. 

11. What is -1- of -L? Ans. ^^. Show why. 



13. Divide -Jj by -1? y 


ins. 


h 


Show why. 


2. 


Mental 


Operations. 


Multiplication. 






Division. 


Find the product— 






Find the quotient — 


1. Of^ofi 






2. Of i divided by h 


3. Ofiofi 






4. Of 1 divided by i. 


5. Ofiofi. 






G. Of fs divided by i, etc. 



Dictate ten siinilai* examples. 

3. BlacJcboard Drill. 
Put eacli of the preceding examples into the form of 
written arithmetic. 

Models. 



(1.) ixi = ? 

1^3 = h. Ans. 



1 X 3 = i. Ans. 



III. MENTAL OPERATIONS. 

1. Wliatisiof-2-? Ans. f. 

2. How is the answer obtained ? 

Ans. By dividing ^ by 2, which is done by muUij^lying the 
denominator. 

3. How many times is 1 contained in |^? Ans. f of a time. 

4. How is this answer obtained ? 

Ans. By multiplying f by 2, which is done by dividing the 
denominator. 

5. What is ^ off? Ans. f.^. Why? 

0. AVhat part of a time is i contained in ^5? Ans. | of a time. 
Why? 



222 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

7. What is the product of f multiplied by i ? Ans. -2-. Why ? 

8. What is the quotient of f divided by ^ ? Aiis. f . Why ? 

9. Multiply f by ^ ? A?is. ^%. Why ? 
10. Divide ^^ by -i- ? ^«s. |. Why ? 

IV. MENTAL MULTIPLICATION. 

jPrincIjjIe. — Mnltipljing by a fraction gives a product 
less than the multiplicand. 
Bide.— T)iYide the multiplicand by the denominator of the multiplier. 
Examples. 

1. What is the product off multiplied by i? etc. 

2. Dictate ten similar examples. 

V. MENTAL DIVISION. 

Principle. — Dividing by a fraction gives a quotient 
greater than the dividend. 

Rule. — Multiply the dividend by the denominator of the divisor. 
Examjyles. 

1. How many times is l contained in § ? 

2. What is the quotient of | divided by l ? 

3. Dictate ten similar examples. 

VL SLATE AND BLACKBOARD DRILL. 

Multiplication. Division. 

f H- 4 == rf:^. Ans. I ^\ X 4 = f . A)is. 

Dictate twenty similar examples. 

VIL MENTAL MULTIPLICATION. 

1. Wliat is 2- of ^ ? Ans. Since ,\ of t is A-, ^ ^vill be twice =,\, 

2. What is ^ of 2? Why? 

3. Multiply f by f . 

4. Dictate twenty similar examples. 



WOEKING MODELS IN AEITIIMETIC. 



223 



VIII. MENTAL DIVISION. 



Since i is contained in f 4 times -|, or f , of a time, 



1. How many times is f contained in § 
Analysis. 

f will be contained ^ of |^, or jf^ of ^ time. 

2. What is the quotient of ^ divided by § ? 

3. Divide A by |. 

4. What i^art of a time is ^ contained in | ? 

5. Dictate ten similar examples. 



IX. SLATE AND BLACKBOARD DRILL. 



MuUijjUcatloii. 
Model. 
(l.)f X| = ? 

Analysis, — Divide by 3 to find i-, 
and multiply that quotient by 
2, to find I-. 



(8.) |Xt=:? 
(5.)fX| = ? 

Dictate ten similar examples. 



Division. 

Jfodel 



(2.) 



15 • 3 • 

_8_ V 3 — S^ 

I -^ 2 =: f . ^72S. 

Analysis. — Multiply by 3 to find 
how many times ^ is contained, 
and divide that product by 2, 
to find how many times f is 
contained. 

(4.) &-^t = ? 
(6.) |--f=? 



X. WRITTEN MULTIPLICATION. 



IX 



Analysis. — Since | of f is 5^, | is 3 times 5^0, or 



8X5= 40 which process is equivalent to multiplying the two 
numerators together for a numerator, and the two denominators for 
a denominator. 

Iiide. — Place the product of tlie numerators over the 
product of the denominators. 



2. 



x# 



Dictate twenty similar examples. 



22tl: METHODS OF TEACHING. 



XI. WRITTEN DIVISION. 

1. Divide ^ by f . 

g -1. 1 = ? Explanation. — Multiply f by 4 in order to find how 

f X 4 = I many times i is contained ; and divide that result by 
§ -^- 3 = ^\ 3 in order to find how many times f is contained. 

XII. METHOD BY INVERTING TPIE DIVISOR. 

Analytical Model. Practical Model. 

f -i- 3 = i^. Ans. 
Utile. — Invert the divisor, and place the product of the 
numerators over tliat of the denominators. 

1.1-M = ? I 2. §^f = ? I 3. f^--| = ? 



SECTION YII. WORKING MODELS IN MENTAL AEITIIMETIC, 

FOE GRAMMAR-SCHOOL GRADES. 

Directions. — Eead each question to the class, allow 
from one quarter to one half a minute for the mental so- 
lution, and require each pupil to write his answer on the 
slate. When the ten questions have been given, let pupils 
exchange slates, and credit the ^vork as the teacher reads 
the correct answers. 

Set I. 

1. What is f of 84? 

2. How many times is % contained in ? 

3. Divide f^ by 4. 

4. Multiply % by 3. 

5. Divide ^ by ^. 

6. How many times is f contained in f ? 

7. Multiply li by l^ 

8. Divide 5^ by 5i. 



WOEKING MODELS IN AKITIIMETIC. 225 

9. Multiply the decimal .2 by .02. 
10. Divide the decimal .2 by .05. 

Set II. 

1. How many times is 2^- contained in 40 ? 

2. What is 3^ times To ? 

0. How many times 6 inches is 50 feet ? 

4. Sum of i,i, and I? 

5. Difference of f and ^ ? 

6. 80 divided by f ? 

7. Sum off and f ? 

8. How many feet in 10 rods ? 

9. How many square inches in f of a square foot ? 
10. How many acres in f of a square mile ? 

Set hi. 

1. Bought a horse for $50 and sold for $75 ; per cent, of gain ? j 

2. If you answer 5 questions out of 6, what per cent, do you ,| 

make ? ' 

3. What is 300 per cent, of § ? 

4. If 10 is 5 per cent, of a number, what is 40 per cent. ? ] 

5. What is 500 per cent, of 25 ? 1 

6. What is i per cent, of 200 ? 

7. At 12^ cts. per pound, how much beefsteak can you buy for .{ 

$80? ] 

8. How many ounces in 4f lbs. of gold ? ; 

9. Find the product of 5 X 4 X 6 X X i. 

10. 3x4-^6-2x54-2-^1 = ? : 

Set IV. 

1. Square the decimal .12. i 
3. Square root of 625 ? 

3. Square root of .0625 ? 

4. $28 is 175 per cent, of what ? - 

5. Cube root of 1728 ? i 

6. Cube of 9 ? | 

7. Cube of .6 ? * 1 

10- ' 



226 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

8. Cost of 61 lbs. of beef at 12^ cents ? 

9. What part of 4 is f? 

10. What per cent, of i is i ? 

Set V. — Test Examination. 

Time: One quarter of a minute to each question. 
Only tlie answers to be written. 

1. 15 + 12 + 13 + 17 + 11 + 18 + 27 = ? 

2. 21 + 24 + 32 + 45 + 24 + 25 = ? 

3. Divide 18 by f. 

4. How many minutes in f of a day ? 

5. Cost of If yards ribbon at 20 cents ? 

6. 144 is if of what? 

7. Prime Victors of 144 ? 

8. G. CD. of 84 and 144? 

9. L.C.M. of8, 12,andl6? 

10. How many tons in 5000 lbs. of iron? 

11. Which is the heavier, a pound of silver or a pound of cotton? 

12. Which is the lighter, an ounce of iron or an ounce of gold? 

13. How many cubic inches in a gallon of water? 

14. How many rods in f of a mile ? 

15. Wiiat 23art of a square inch in a surflice f of an inch square ? 

16. Acres in f of a square mile ? 

17. Square of 1.2? 

18. Square root of 1600? 

19. Cube of 12? 

20. Cube root of 125 ? • 

21. Cubic inches in a cube of wood whose edges are 8 inches ? 

22. Sheets of paper in a quarter ream ? 

23. Inches in the meter ? 

24. How many feet of board measure in a board 18 feet long and 

16 inches wide ? 

25. Multiply 2.5 by 2.5. 

26. Divide .25 by .0005. 

27. Write in decimal form ^ per cent. 

28. 7 is what jDcr cent, of 8 ? 



WOKKING MODELS IN ARITHMETIC. 227 

29. Find 12^ per cent, of $1600 ? 

30. What is the amount of $48 plus 75 per cent, of itself ? 

31. From $150 take 20 per cent, of itself. 

32. $15 is f of what ? 

33. $1500 is 75 per cent, of what ? 

34. What number plus ^ of itself equals 30 ? 

35. What number increased by 25 per cent, of itself equals 3000 ? 

36. Bought butter at 25 cents, and sold at 30 cents ; per cent, of 

gain ? 

37. Interest on $240 for 1 year 4 months at 10 per cent. ? 

38. Interest on $400 at 1^ per cent, a month for 21 days? 

39. Cube root of the decimal .125. 

40. Inches of surface on a cube whose edge is 10 inches. 

Extra Questions. 

1. Product of $2.00 by $5.00? 

2. Divide $2.00 by $5.00. 

3. 25 X 4 ^ 50 — 2 X 10 -^- 2 X 5 =r ? 

4. 10x0h-2 + 4x5-^2 = ? 

5. Which is the larger, ^ an apple or ^ a pear? 



SECTION yill. WOEKINa MODELS IN THE TABLES. 

I. LONG OR LINEAR MEASURE. 

Note. — As introductory lessons, teachers must require 
pupils to measure with a rule the length of slates, books, 
desks, blackboards, rooms, etc. ; to draw by the eye, and 
afterwards to measure lines of different lengths on the 
blackboard, as, G inches, 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet, etc. ; to 
measure on the floor a rod in length, etc. Such exercises 
must be repeated and varied until pupils are trained to 
estimate length w^itli some degree of ., accuracy. Pupils 
should also be taught how to make rough estimates by 
" pacing," by " hands," and by the extended arms. 



228 



METHODS OF TExiCIIING. 



Table. 

12 inclies (in.) = 1 foot (ft.). 
3 feet = 1 yard (yd.). 

161 feet =: 1 rod (rd.). 

320 rods = 1 mile (mi.). 



How many 

1. Inclies in 41 ft. < 

2. Inclies in 2f ft. 

3. Inches in 1 yd. : 
4. 'Feet in 2 rods? 
5. Feet in 10 yds. ' 



1. Oral Questions. 

How many 

6. Feet in 10 rods? 

7. Rods in half a mile ? 

8. Rods in 2 miles ? 

9. Feet in 10 fathoms ? 
10. Feet in 33^ paces? 



2. Slate and Blaclloard. 

1. How many rods in 25^ miles ? 

2. How many feet in 40 rods ? 

3. How many inches in 97^ feet ? 

4. How many geographical miles in 180 degrees of longitude on 

the equator ? 

5. From the north to the south pole the distance is 180 degrees. 

How many statute miles ? 

6. How many statute miles in length is the equator ? 

7. London is in 50° N. L. ; how many statute miles from the 

equator ? 

8. What part of a mile in 80 rods ? 

9. How many yards in 3530 feet ? 
10. How many rods in 2500 miles ? 



II. SQUARE MEASURE. 

1. Draw on slates a figure one incli square. 

2. Draw on slates a figure 2 inches square, and divide 
it into square inches. 

3. Draw a figure 12 inches long and 4 inches wide, sub- 
divide into square inches, and count them. 



WORKINa MODELS IN AEITIIMETIC. 229 

4. Draw on the blackboard a figure 1 foot square, sub- 
divide it into square inches, and count the squares. 

5. Draw on the blackboard a iigure 2 feet square, and 
subdivide it into square feet. 

1. Oral Questions. 
How many square 

1. Inches in a figure 6 inches long by 4 inches wide ? 

2. Feet in a surfoce 9 by 4 feet ? 

3. Inches in a surface 12 by 6 inches? 

4. Inches in a surftice 16 inches by i an inch? 

5. Feet in a figure 20 by 6 feet ? 

Rule for Finding die Square Contents^ or Area. 
MultijDly the number representing the length bj the 
number representing the breadth, in the same denomina- 
tion, and the result will be the square units of measure- 

144 square inches (12x12) =1 square foot (sq. ft.). 

9 square feet (3 X 3) =1 square yard (sq. yd.). 

2721 square feet (16i X 16^) = 1 square rod (sq. rd.). 
160 square rods =z 1 acre (a.), 

640 acres = 1 square mile. 

2. Practical Ajyj^lication. 
Teachers will require pupils to measure, and then find 
the square contents of — 

1. The surface of a school desk. 

2. Of the teacher's platform. 

3. Of a door. 

4. Of a window. 

5. Of a blackboard. 

6. Of the floor. 

7. Of one side of the room. 

8. Of one end of the room. 

9. Of the ceiling:. 



230 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



3. Oral Questions. 

1. How many square inches in ^,j of a square foot ? 

2. How many square feet in 4f square yards ? 

3. How many square inclies in four square feet ? 

4. How many square inches on one side of a slate 13 by 8|- inches ? 

5. On both sides of a book G by o^^ inches ? 

6. On tlie surface of a desk 20 by 18 inches ? 

7. Square feet on. the floor of a room 16 by 10^ feet ? 

8. Square rods in a field 12 rods by 8f ? 

9. Acres in 2 square miles ? 
10. Acres in f of a square mile ? 

Teachers will require each pupil to put to the class 
a similar question. 

4, Slate and BlacTcboaixl. 

1. How many square inches on the surface of a desk 21f by 16 

inches ? 

2. How many square yards on a floor 33 by 27^ feet ? 

3. Find the square feet of surface on the ceiling and walls of a 

room 25 by 20 feet, and 14 feet high. 

4. How many square inches of surface on both sides of a sheet 

of cap paper ? Measure it. 

5. How many square yards of painting on one side of a house 60 

by 30 feet ? 

6. How many square feet of land in a lot 137^ by 137^ feet ? 

7. How many acres in 4640 square rods ? 

8. How many acres in 159,000 square miles? 

9. How many acres in a piece of land 1250 rods long by 840 

wide ? 
10. How many square rods in a square mile ? 

Teachers will dictate five similar questions. 



SECTION IX. THE METRIC SYSTEM. 

1. The Metric System, the French system of weights and measures, 
is based on the decimal scale. 



WORKING MODELS IN ARITHMETIC. 



231 



2. The Meter ^ the unit of the system, is the ten millionth part of a 
meridian measured from the equator to either pole. 

3. The prefixes are : 

For Whole Namlers. For Decimal Parts. 



Thousands. | Hundreds. 


Tens. 


Tenths. 


Hundredths. 


Thousandths. 


Kilo-. Hecto-. 


Deka-. 


Deci-. 


Centi-. 


Milli-. 


1000 100 


10 


.1 


.01 


.001 



LONG OR LINEAR MEASURE. 

The meter, the unit of length, is equal to 39.37 inches nearly. The 
decimeter is about 4 inches. Draw on the board a meter and a 
decimeter. 

Teachers can make a meter correct enoiigli for practical 
purposes by taking a stick 39f inches long, and dividing 
it into ten eqnal parts, and then subdividing each j^art 
into tenths. 

Kequire each pupil to make one. 

Table. • 

After each prefix supply the dash by the word meter. 
Ten equals one of the next higher. 

Prefixes . 

Meters . . 

Number . 



Kilo- 
1000 


Hecto- 

100 


Deka- 
10 


Meters. 
1 


Deci- 
•1 


Centi- 
,01 


Milli- 
.001 


3k 4!, 


5J 


gm 


7 


8 


9 



1. Practically, the preceding number, written below the table, is 
read thus : 3456 meters, 78y^^ centimeters, and is written thus : 
345G.789'"; just as we read 345 eagles, 6 dollars, 7 dimes, 8 cents, 
9 mills, thus : |34o6.78-j2j, three thousand four hundred fifty - six 
dollars, seventy-eight and nine-tenths cents. 

The dollar^ dime, cent, and mill correspond to the meter, 
decimeter, centimeter, and millimeter. 



232 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2. The meter (39.37 in.) is used for measuring short distances. 

3. The kilometer (.6213824 mi,, or about |- mi.) is used for long 
distances. 

4. Practically, then, this table is reduced to meters and Mlometers^ 
and their decimal divisions, just as our table of currency is practi- 
cally expressed in dollars, cents, and decimals of tlie cent. 

Practical Questions. 

1. Write 18 meters, 2 decimeters, and 5 centimeters. Aiis. 18.25"^". 
Note. — This may be read 18j%^o meters, just as we sometimes 

read llSj^/^ instead of $18 and 25 cents; or it may be read 
18 meters, 25 centimeters. 

2. Write 45 meters, 7 decimeters, 5 centimeters, 8 millimeters. 

3. Write 85 kilometers, 9 hectometers, 7 dekameters, 6 meters. 
Ans. 85.97G'\ 

4. Read 3.008" ; 5.0095'" ; 275.04'". 

5. Read 42.38'^; 147.3596'^; 4.05^ 

Slate and Blacldoard Brill. 
G. Mount Everest is 29,600 feet high ; find its height in meters. 

7. The Column Vendome in Paris is 40.5"" high : Mount Everest 
is how many times as high ? 

8. Cost of 8.5'" of cloth at 5 fr. 40 c. a meter ? 

9. How many feet and inches in 15.25'"? 

10. How many miles in 75 kilometers ? 

11. How many kilometers in the circumference of the earth — 
25,000 miles ? 

12. The distance from New York to San Francisco, by rail, is about 
3000 miles ; how many meters ? 

GENERAL RULE FOR THE METRIC SYSTEM. 

Measure all lengths in meters, all capacities in liters, all 
weights in grams, using decimal fractions only, and saying 
deci for tenth, ccntl for hundredth, iniUi for tliousandth, 
deka for ten, hecto for hundred, Vdo for thousand, and 
mijria for ten thousand. 



WORKING MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 



Chapter III. 
WORKING MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 

SECTION I. GLOBE LESSONS FOR BEGINNERS. 

Directions. — Place the school globe oii the table in front 
of the class, and require the pupils, one by one, to go np 
to the globe and ^^oint out with the finger what is asked 
for by the teacher. If one fails to find the place called 
for, send np another, and so on round the class. Tell the 
children nothing that any one in the class is able to find 
out for himself. The Gennan relief globes are the best 
suited to these exercises. 

Lesson I. 

1. What is tlie shape of the school globe ? 

2. Point out T\'ith your finger the parts that represent laud. 

3. Point out the parts that represent water. 

4. Which is the larger, the land surface or the water surface ? 

5. Turn the globe round once : on what does it turn ? 

6. In what time does the real earth turn round, or rotate onccl 

7. How often does the sun rise and set ? 

8. Place 3^our finger on the most nortlierly point on the globe : 

what is that point called ? 

9. Place your finger on the most southerly point of the globe : 

what is that point called ? 

10. Put your finger on tlie black line half-way between the two 

poles, and follow it all round the globe : what is it called ? 

11. Find the Pacific Ocean, and turn the globe so that the class 

can see it. 



234 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Lesson II. 

1. Point out the Atlantic Ocean, 

2. Find tlie Indian Ocean. 

3. Point out North America. 

4. Who can point out tlie hind on which we live? 

5. Find South America. 

6. Find Asia, Africa, Europe. 

7. Turn the eastern hemisphere towards the class. 

8. Turn the western hemisphere towards the class. 

9. Find and tell tlrc names of as many large islands as you can. 

Lesson III. 

1. In what direction is the north pole from the south pole ? 

2. The south pole from the north pole ? 

3. The north pole from the equator ? 

4. The south pole from the equator? 

5. North America from South America ? 
C. South America from North America ? 

7. Europe from Africa ? Africa from Europe ? 

8. Asia from Australia ? Australia from Asia ? 

9. In what direction is North America from Europe ? Europe 

from North America ? 

10. Europe from Asia ? Asia from Europe ? 

11. South America from Africa? Africa from South America? 

LliSSON IV. 

1. Put your finger on Asia ; on Europe : which is the larger? 

2. Put your finger on North America ; on South America : which 

seems to be the larger ? 

3. Which is the larger, North America or Europe ? 

4. South America or xVsia ? 

5. South America or Africa ? 
G. Africa or Australia ? 

7. Africa or Europe ? 



WORKma MODELS IN GEOGEAPIIY. 235 



Lesson V, 

1. What is the southern point of Africa named ? Of South Amer- 

ica? 

2. Point out and read tlie names of four large islands between 

Australia and Asia. 

3. Which is the largest of these ? 

4. Find out the place where North America and Asia come nearly- 

together : what separates them ? 

5. Which is the largest ocean ? 

6. Which is the longest and narrowest ? 

7. What small ocean around the north pole? 

8. What ocean around the south pole ? 

Lesson VL 

1. Find the Amazon River, in South America. 

2. Point out the Mississippi, in North America. 

3. Find the Nile, in Africa ; the Niger. 

4. Find some great river in Asia. 

5. Find the largest river in Europe. 

6. Find any other river that you have ever heard of 

7. Put your finger on the globe where the Amazon seems to begin ; 

follow it down to the ocean : in what direction does it flow ? 

8. In the same w^ay follow the Mississijopi, and tell its direction. 

9. Follow dow^n the Nile, and tell its course. 

Lesson VII. 

1. Find the longest range of mountains in North America ; read 

the name. 

2. Follow the range with your finger : in w^hat direction docs it 

extend ? 

3. Find the longest range in South America; follow it with your 

finger over its. whole length : what is its direction ? 

4. Look at Asia ; see if you can find the Himalaya Mountains. 

5. Find the name of any other range in Asia, 

6. See what mountains you can find in Europe. 

7. In Africa. 



236 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Lesson VIII. 

1. Find a sea between North America and South America. 

2. Put 3^our finger on a sea between Europe and Africa ; name it. 

3. Point out a sea south of Asia. 

4. Put your finger on a sea north of the island of Borneo. 

5. Find a sea between Asia and the Japan isles. 

6. What long and narrow sea between Africa and Asia ? 

7. Find a sea nortli of Australia. 

8. Find a great gulf south of the United States. 

9. Find a great bay north of the United States. 

10. Put your finger on a great bay south of Asia. 

11. Find a gulf west of Africa, near the equator. 

12. Find and name any other bay, gulf, or sea that you can. 



•SECTION II. — SECOND SEKIES OF GLOBE LESSONS. 
Lessok I. 
1. Put your finger on the equator, and follow that circle entirely 

round the globe : in what direction does it extend ? 
3. Which point is at the greater distance from the equator, the 
north pole or the south pole ? 

3. Make up a definition of the equator. 

4. Count the small circles between the equator and the north pole ; 

the south pole. 

5. There are 360° in a circle : how many degrees is it from the 

equator to the north pole ? The south pole ? 

6. How many degrees from the equator is the first circle north of 

it ? The second ? The third ? etc. 

7. How many degrees south of the equator is the first circle ? The 

second? The third? etc. 
, 8. What is the use of these circles parallel to the equator? 

Ans. To show the distance of places north or south from the 
equator. 

Lesson II. 
1. Put your finger on London, the largest city in the world. 



WORKINa MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 237 

2. Passing near London, north and south, you see a heavily marked 

black line ; follow it with your finger from the north pole to 
the south pole. 

3. What part of the distance round the globe does this line ex- 

tend ? 

4. Where does it begin and where does it end ? 

5. What is this half-circle called ? 

Atis. The meridian of Greenwich, 

6. See if you can find any other half-circles on the globe. 

7. Beginning on the equator, at the meridian of Greenwich, count 

the half-circles eastward round the globe : how many ? 

8. Now read the figures on the equator where each of these half- 

circles crosses it: what is the first numbered east of the 
meridian of Greenwich ? 

9. What is the use of these half-circles or meridians ? 

Aiis. To show how many degrees places are east or west 
from the meridian of Greenwich, 

Lesson III, 
J}^ote. — Teachers will now explain the use of the terms 
atitnde and longitude. 

1, You will look for the figures showing latitude on the meridian 

of Greenwich ; put your finger on the place named, and then 
follow the parallel passing through or near that place around 
' to the meridian of Greenwich, If you have a meridian globe, 
bring the place to the edge of the brass meridian. The degree 
over the place, counted from the equator^ gives the latitude, 

2. In what latitude is London ? 

3. In what latitude is the northern part of South America ? 

4, Cape Horn ? Cape of Good Hope ? 

5. The mouth of the Amazon ? 

6. New York ? Philadelphia ? Cuba ? 

7, The Himalaya Mountains ? The Isthmus of Suez ? 

8, For the figures marking longitude, look on the equator, put 

your finger on the place named, and follow the meridian pass- 
ing through or near it to the equator, and read the figures. 



Ob METHODS OF TEACHING. 

With a meridian globe, bring the place to the edge of the 
brazen meridian ; the degree on the equator, cut by this 
meridian, is the longitude of the i)lace. 
9. What is the longitude of Cape Horn ? Cape of Good Hope ? 

10. Of Iceland ? Of the mouth of the Amazon ? 

11. Of the Isthmus of Panama ? 

12. Of the mouth of the Mississippi? 

13. Of the Gulf of Mexico? 

14. Of the Caribbean Sea ? 

15. Of the Sandwich Islands? 

16. Of the eastern point of Africa ? 

17. Of the western point of South America? 

18. OftbeNilePtiver? 

19. What is the greatest latitude any place can have ? Why ? The 

greatest longitude ? Why ? 

20. What places have no latitude ? no longitude ? Wliy ? 

21. Where is the place that has neither latitude nor longitude ? 

Lesson IV. 

1. Point out, and follow with your finger around the globe, the 

dotted circle 23^° north of the equator; find its name. 

2. Point out in the same way the dotted circle 23^° south of the 

equator : what is it called ? 

3. Add 23i to 23^. 

4. How wide is the equatorial, or torrid, zone ? 

5. Point out and name two large islands in this belt or zone. 
G. Find two grand divisions principally within this zone. 

7. What great river is entirely within this zone ? 

8. What important isthmus ? 

9. What ocean is mainly in it ? 

10. In what zone is the Niger River? 

Lesson V. 

1. Find a sea, a bay, and a gulf partly in this zone. 

2. Find a sea wholly in this zone. 

3. Point out on the globe the dotted circle 23^° south of the north 

pole : what is this circle named ? 



WOEKINa MODELS IN GEOGKAPIIY. 239 

4. What great island does this circle cross ? 

5. What three grand divisions does it pass through ? 
G. Near what straits does it pass ? 

7. Find a dotted circle 23^-° north of the south pole : what is it 

called ? 

8. The north temperate zone lies between the arctic circle and the 

tropic of Cancer ; follow it around the globe with your two 
Ihigers, one on each circle. 

9. Point out a great sea in this zone. 

Lesson VI. 

1. In what zone is our country ? 

2. In what zone are the Japan islands ? 

3. In what zone is London ? Paris ? New York ? Boston ? San 

Francisco ? 

4. Find the south temperate zone. 

5. Wliat great island partly in this zone ? 

6. Find two cities in this zone. 

7. In which zone is Cape Horn ? Cape of Good Hope ? 

Lesson VII. — Map Exercise. 

Note. — After finishing the globe lessons, hang np an 
outline map of the hemispheres, ask as many of the pre- 
ceding globe questions as are suitable for the map, and 
require pupils singly to point to the places with a pointer. 



SECTION IIL LESSONS IN LOCAL GEOGEAPHY. 

Note for Teachers. — The following sets of questions 
are merely suggestive of extended lists to be asked by 
teachers : 

I. FIRST STEPS. — THE SCHOOLROOM. 

1. What is the part of the room over your heads called ? 

2, What is the part under your feet called ? 
0. How many sides has this room ? 

4. How many ends ? 



2J:0 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

5. IIow many walls ? 

6. Point out the right wall; the left; the front; the back. 

7. How many windows are there ? 

8. Where are they ? 

9. IIow many doors ? Where are they ? 

10. What stand on the floor? 

11. What hang on the walls ? 

12. How long is this room ? 

13. Measure it by stepping. 

14. How many feet do you take in one long step ? 

15. How wide is this room? 

16. Point to where tlie sun rises; sets. 

17. Face north; south; east; west. 

18. Where is the sun at noon ? 

II. LOCAL GEOGRAPHY FOR COUNTRY CLASSES. 

Lesson I. 

1. What is the name of the town or village in which you live ? 

2. In what county do you live ? 

3. In what State do you live ? 

4. Point to the place where the sun rises. 

5. Point to the place where the sun sets. 

6. Point towards the north ; the south. 

7. Point towards the east ; the west. 

8. In what direction is your home from the school-house? The 

school-house from your home ? 

9. IIow far from the school-house do you live ? 
10. How long does it take you to walk to school ? 

Lesson II. 

1. Is there any river near your home ? 

2. Do you know the name of any brook near us ? 

3. Have you ever seen a spring ? If so, where ? 

4. Have you ever seen a hill ? Where ? What is its name ? 

5. Is there any mountain in your town or vicinity ? Its name ? 
G. What is the name of the highest mountain you have ever seen ? 



WOEKma MODELS IN GEOGEAPUY. 241 



Lesson III. 

1. What towns besides your own have you ever seen ? 

2. What towns lie next to yours ? 

3. Have you ever visited a city ? 

4. What is its name ? And how did you travel there ? 

5. How does it differ from the place in which you live ? 

G. Do you know the names of any large cities in your State ? 

Lesson IV. 

1. What flirms or ranches do you know of near where you live ? 

2. What kinds of grain are raised on them ? 

3. What kinds of animals are raised on a farm ? 

4. How are they kept during the winter ? 

5. What are horses used for ? 

6. Why are sheep raised ? 

7. Why are cows kept ? 

8. What kinds of fruit are raised on the farms that you have 

seen ? 

9. How are butter and cheese made ? 

10. What kinds of trees grow in the woods or forests near where 
you live ? 

Lesson V. 

1. Are there any saw-mills in your town ? 

2. What kinds of trees are sawed into lumber in them ? 

3. Are there any grist-mills or flour-mills in your town ? 

4. Are there any factories, mills, or machine-shops in your town ? 

5. Did you ever see a blacksmith's shop ? Whose ? 
G. How do the people in your place earn a living ? 

Lesson VI. 

1. Have you ever been a-fishing in any of the brooks, rivers, or 

ponds in your town ? 

2. What kinds of fish can you catch ? 

3. How do you catch fish ? 

4. Are there any mines in your town ? 

5. What is got from them ? 

11 



24:2 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



III. LOCAL GEOGRAPHY FOR CITY CLASSES. 

1. In what city do you live ? 

2. In what State is it situated ? 

3. In wliat county is it ? 

4. Is it a large city or a small one ? 

5. Is it on a bay, river, or lake ? 

G. What is tlie name of the principal street? 

7. On what street is your school-house ? 

8. On what street is your home ? 

9. On what street is the Post-office ? City Hall ? 

10. Jn what direction does the principal street extend ? 

11. Which way does the front of your school-house face ? 
13. What lies north of your city? South ? etc. 

13. What railroads, if any, pass through your city or terminate 

in it ? 

14. What city have you ever seen besides your own ? 

Add similar questions until all that tlie pupils know 
about tlieir own city is exhausted. 



SECTION lY. CLIMATE AND THE ZONES. 

[Introductory oral explanations by the teacher.] 

Climate. — The climate of a place depends on the kind of weather 
that prevails there, whether hot, cold, or temperate. 

Hot Climate. — That part of the earth lying near the equator has a 
hot climate. It is called the Torrid Zone. 

Cause. — The cause of this hot climate is the fiict that the sun's 
rays at noonday fall vertically, or nearly so, upon this part of the 
earth. 

Boundaries. — The torrid zone extends 23^° on each side of the 
equator. Its boundary circles are the tropics. 

Reason. — These circles are 23^-° from tlie equator, because the 
earth's axis is inclined 23?,° from a perpendicular to its path around 
Ihc sun. 



WORKING MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 24:3 

Seasons. — Tlie weather in the torrid zone is a continual summer, 
tliere being but little change, except from the dry season to the 
rainy season. 

Cold Climate. — Those parts of the globe that lie near the poles 
have a very cold climate, and are called the Frigid Zones. 

Boundaries. — They lie between the poles and the polar circles. 
These circles are 23^° from the poles, because the earth's axis is in- 
clined 23^°. 

Seasons. — There arc only two seasons — a long and freezing winter, 
and a short, warm summer. 

Reason. — The sun's rays fall slantingly, or obliquely, upon these 
parts of the earth. 

Temi^erate Climate. — Those parts of the earth that lie between the 
tropics and the polar circles are called the Temperate Zones. 
These zones have four seasons ; what are they ? 

Reason. — These changes of seasons are owing to the different way 
in which the sun's rays fall upon the earth at different times during 
the year. 

The teacher will illustrate the effect of the inclination 
of the earth's axis by means of a globe revolving around 
a liirht. 

o 



SECTION V. QUESTIONS ON LOCAL WEATHER CONDITIONS. 

[To be given as a basis for conversation lessons,] 
Set I. 

1. In what country do you live ? 

2. In what zone is it ? 

3. In what months does the snow fall ? 

4. Name the three winter months. 

5. The three summer months. 

6. When are the days the longer, in summer or in winter ? 

7. In which month in winter are the days shortest ? 

8. In which month of the year are the days longest ? 

9. When are the days coldest? 
10. When are the days hottest? 



214 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



Set II. 

1. At about wliat time does the sun rise and set in the shortest 

winter days ? 

2. In the longest summer dnjs ? 

3. How long are the longest days ? 

4. How long are the shortest days ? 

5. How long are the longest nights ? 

6. How long are the shortest nights ? 

7. When is the sun more nearly over your head at noon, in sum- 

mer or in winter ? 

8. When is the sun lowest down in the sky at noon, in winter 

or in summer ? 

9. When does the sun shine the hottest, at morning, evening, or 

at noon ? Why ? 

10, Does the sun rise at the same point in the horizon in summer 

as in winter ? 

11. Does it set at the same point ? 

Set III. 

1. In what seasons is it neither very hot nor very cold where you 

live? 

2. What about the length of the days in spring and autumn ? 

3. At what time in the year do you have the most rain ? The 

least ? 

4. How does your climate compare with that of the frigid zones? 

Of the torrid zone ? 



SECTION VI. — LOCAL STATE GEOGRAPHY. 

[An exercise in general information.] 

Set I. 

1. Have you ever seen a farm or ranch ? 

2. Do you know any farmers ? 

3. What is the work of a former ? 

4. Are there many agriculturists in your part of the State? 

5. Are there any manufactories in or near the place where you 

live? 



WOEKINa MODELS IN GEOGEAPHY. 245 

6. What articles do tliey make ? 

7. Have you ever seen a woollen-mill ? A cotton-mill ? A shoe- 

shop ? A machine-shop ? A flour-mill ? A saw-mill ? A 
blacksmith's shop? A quartz-miil ? A carpenter's shop? 
A printing-office ? 

8. Are there any traders or merchants in or near the place "where. 

you live ? 

9. What articles do they keep for sale ? 
10. What do they buy? 

Set IL 

1. Have you ever seen a gold-mine ? A silver-mine ? A coal- 

mine ? An iron-mine ? 

2. What mines in your State do you know of? 

3. Are there any fishermen near where you live ? 

4. What do they catch ? 

5. What kinds of fish have you yourself ever cauglit ? 

G. Are there any vineyards in or near the place where you live ? 

7. What is made on those vineyards ? 

8. How is wine made ? 

9. Are there any fruit orchards near you ? 
10. What khids of fruit are raised ? 

Set III. 

1. Are there any stock-farms, or ranches, near you ? 

2. What kinds of stock are raised on them ? 

3. Name any seaport cities in your State. 

4. Name any manufacturing cities. 

5. In what parts of your State are the best farms ? 

6. In what parts the richest mines ? 

7. In what parts the most extensive orchards or vineyards. 

8. In wdiat parts are there lumber-mills ? 

9. In what parts are the largest stock-ranches ? 

10. In what parts are the largest vegetable gardens? 

Set IV. 
1. What kinds of forest trees grow in your State? 



24:6 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2. In what parts arc tlie largest forests ? 

3. What kinds of wood do you burn ? 

4. Of what kinds of wood is your house built ? 

5. Name all the kinds of trees that you have ever seen growing ? 
G. What wild animals are found in your State ? 

7. Which of these have you ever seen? 

8. What birds live in your place ? 

9. Can you tell the names of any wild flowers growing in your 

place ? 
10. What kinds of fishes can you catch in your brooks, rivers, or 
ponds ? 



SECTION VII. COMPOSITIONS ON GEOGRAPHY. 

Eead this to the class as a model. Let the pupils note 
on their slates the order of the "heads," and then repro- 
duce from memory, dividing into paragraphs, but omit- 
ting the " headings." 

I. THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. 

1. YN'ame.'] — The six Eastern States were named Neio England by 
the early English explorers and settlers. 

3. \_8urface.'\ — Along the Atlantic coast there is a narrow belt of 
lowland, but, in general, the country is either hilly or moun- 
tainous. The White Mountains in New Hampshire are noted 
for picturesque scenery. 

3. \_CUmate.'] — The winters are long and cold, and in the northern 

parts of this section snow falls to a great depth. The sum- 
mers are short, but hot. 

4. {^Lalces and Bivers.'] — In Maine and New Hampshire there are 

numerous small lakes, filling the depressions among the liills 
and mountains. The principal rivers are the Penobscot, Ken- 
nebec, Connecticut, and IMerrimac; but there are a great 
many smaller streams that supply abundant water-power for 
manufacturing purposes. 



WOEKING MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 24:7 

5. [Sea-coast.] — The long line of sea-coast lias many deep and safe 

harbors that afford excellent facilities for commerce. 

6. [Foi'ests.] — The hills and mountains of the northern parts are 

covered with extensive forests, which supply great quantities 
of lumber. 

7. [Occupations.'] — The soil of New England is neither fertile nor 

easily cultivated. The leading occupations are manufactures, 
commerce, ship-building, and fishing. 

8. [Cities.] — The largest city and chief business centre is Boston, 

which ranks in commerce as the second city in the Union. 
Among other important places are New Haven, Providence, 
Worcester, Portland, Lowell, Lawrence, and Manchester. 

Exercises on Outlines. 

Write short descriptions of tlie different sections of our 
country from tlie following outlines, slightly changed from 
the preceding. 

L The Ifiddle States. — 1. Name. 2. Surfoce. 3. Climate. 4. 
Lakes and Rivers. 5. Facilities for Commerce. 6. Occupa- 
tions. 7. Mining. 8. Cities. 
II. The Southern States. — 1. Name. 2. Surface. 3. Climate. 4. 

Rivers. 5, Agriculture and Products. 6. Cities. 
III. The Western States. — 1. Name and Position. 2. Surface and 
Soil. 3. Rivers. 4. Agricultural Products. 5. Railroads. 
6. Cities. 
IV. The Pacific States. 

II. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF OUR COUNTRY. 

Read to the class and require an abstract from notes. 

Name.— Owv country is called the United States because it con- 
sists of a number of States united into one nation, under one 
general government. 

Banlc. — It ranks as one of the most powerful, civilized, and popu- 
lous nations of the globe. 



24:8 METHODS OF TEACniNG. 

Position. — It includes the middle part of North America, and ex- 
tends from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Mountains. — There are three great mountain systems — the Rocky, 
the Appalachian or Alleghany, and the Sierra Nevada. 

Physical Features. — These mountain ranges make three great nat- 
ural divisions — the Atlantic Highlands and the Atlantic Plain, 
the Pacific Highlands and the Pacific Slope, and the Valley of 
the Mississippi. 

Bivers. — The Mississippi is one of the great rivers of the globe. 
Its chief branches are the Missouri, Ohio, Platte, Arkansas, and 
Red rivers. The other large rivers are the Columbia, the Col- 
orado, and the Yukon, all of which flow into the Pacific. 

Lalces. — Along the northern border there is a chain of great lakes 
which have an outlet through the St. Lawrence River into the 
Atlantic. 

Occupations. — The Atlantic Slope is the manufiicturing and com- 
mercial section ; the Mississippi Valley the agricultural section ; 
and the Pacific Slope the mining and grazing region. 

Climate. — Our country, as a whole, has a temperate climate. The 
winters in the northern parts are long and cold ; in the south- 
ern parts, mild and short. The Pacific Highlands have but lit- 
tle rain. 

Products. — The farm-products in the northern belt are grain, fruit, 
and vegetables ; in the southern, cotton, sugar, rice, and to- 
bacco. 

Mining. — The minerals of the Atlantic Slope are coal and iron, 
and coal oil, or petroleum ; of the Pacific Slope, gold and sil- 
ver; of the northern part of the Mississippi Valley, iron, lead, 
and copper. 

Exjjorts. — The leading exports are cotton, tobacco, breadstuff's, pe- 
troleum, and manufactured articles. 

Cities. — The chief seaports are New York, Boston, San Francisco, 
Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Baltimore. The great inland 
cities are Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. 

Ccqntal. — Washington, in the District of Columbia, is the seat of 
government. 

Government. — The government is a federal republic. Congress 



WORKING MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 249 

maJces the laws; the President executes them; and the Supreme 
Court decides questions relating to the laws. 

Exercise on Outlines. 
Describe the following countries by filling up the out- 
lines given : 

I. France. — 1. Rank. 2. Agricultural Products. 3. Manuftict- 

ures. 4. Exports. 5. Paris. 6. Other cities. 
II. The German Empire. — 1. Government. 2. Surface. 3. Riv- 
ers. 4. Agriculture. 5. Cities. 

III. Empire of Russia. — 1. Size and Rank. 2. Surface. 3. Rivers. 

4. Seas. 5. Resources. 6. Commerce. 7. Cities. 

IV. The Chinese Empire. — 1. Size and Population. 2. Products 

and Exports. 3, Cities. 4. People. 
V. Empire of Japan.— 1. Position. 2. Products. 3. People. 4. 
Cities and Commerce. 



SECTION" VIII. — FACTS ABOUT OUR OWN COUNTRY. 

Note. — Eequire all pupils in the grammar grades to 
copy these summaries into blank-books, and then to mem- 
orize them. Out of the mass of text-book details it is de- 
sirable to ^x in the mind a few leading facts, so that they 
will stay learned. 

I. PHYSICAL DIVISIONS. 

1. The Mississippi Valley. 

2. The Pacific Highlands and the Pacific Slope. 

3. The Atlantic Highlands and the Atlantic Plain. 

II. MOUNTAIN RANGES. 

1. The Rocky. 

2. The Alleghany. 

3. The Sierra Nevada. 

11^- 



250 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



III. EIVERS. 

1. Mississippi. 3. Yukon. 

2. Columbia. 4. Colorado. 

5. Rio Grande. 

Chief Brandies of the IlississijJj^i. 

1. Missouri. 4. Arkansas. 

2. Ohio. 5. Red. 

3. Platte. 6. Tennessee. 

Rivers Commercially Tmjyortant. 

1. Mississippi. ' 4. Hudson. 

2. Ohio. 5, Penobscot. 

3. Delaware. C. Potomac. 

IV. BAYS COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT. 

1. New York. 4. Delaware. 

2. Massachusetts. 5. Chesapeake. 

3. San Francisco, 6. Mobile. 

V. GREAT LAKES. 

1. Superior. 4. Erie. 

2. Michigan. 5. Ontario. 

3. Huron. C. Great Salt. 

VI. CAPES NOTED IN NAVIGATION. 

1. Sandy Hook. 3. Cape Hatteras. 

2. Cape Cod. 4. Cape Sable. 

VIL CHIEF SEAPORT CITIES. 

1. New York. 4. Philadelphia. 

2. Boston. 5. Baltimore. 

3. San Francisco. 6. New Orleans. 

VIIL CHIEF INLAND CITIES. 

1. Chicago. 3. Cincinnati. 

2. St. Louis. 4. Pittsburgh. 



WOEKINa MODELS IN GEOGRAPHY. 251 

Five Largest in Population. 

1. New York. 3. Brooklyn. 

2. PliiladeliDliia. 4. Cliicago. 

5. St. Louis. 



SECTION IX. FACTS ABQUT THE CONTINENTS. 

[For the Highest Grades.] 

THE OLD WORLD. TUE NEW WORLD. 

Continental Divisions. 
Three grand divisions. Contrast. Two grand divisions. 

• COMPAKATIVE SiZE. 

Twice as larc^e as the New ) ^, , ( One half as large as the 

-t,r i -, \ Contrast. < 

World. ) ( Old World. 

Shape. 
Compact. Length and ) ^ . S Long and narrow. Length 

breadth nearly equal. S ' \ three times the breadth. 

Greatest Length. 
East and west, 10,000 ) ^ ^ ( North and south, 9000 



> Contrast. \ 



miles. S ' { miles. 

Greatest Width. 

North and south, 7000 ) ^i . . S East and west, 3000 

' y Contrast. < ,, 

miles. S i miles. 

Mountain Ranges. 
Extend east and west. Contrast. Extend north and south. 

Mountain Peaks. 

Hio-hest near the Tropic of ) ^ , , ( Highest near the Tropic 
° ^ [ Contrast. \ r. r^ - 

Cancer. ) ( of Capricorn. 

Peninsulas. 
Extend southerly. Si7nilariti/. Extend southerly. 



252 



METHODS OP TEACHING. 



the old world. the new wof.ld. 

Southern Points. 

Cape of Good Hope. Similarity. Cape Horn. 

Plains. 

One third of the surface. Contrast. Two thirds of the surface. 

Plateaus. 
Two thu'ds of the surface. Contrast. One third of the surface. 



Continental. 



Climate. 

Contrast. Oceanic, 

Moisture. 



Scanty rains and great des- ) ^ . . j Copious rains, great rivers 
\ ^^'^^''^^^- I and lakes. 



erts. 



life. 



Life. 

Contrast. 



In the ascendant Animal ) ^„„^,_ . j In the ascendant Vegetable 

{ life. 



Typical Wild Animals. 
The elephant, rhinoceros, \ c The buffalo, moose, griz- 

giraflfe, lion, tiger, hippo- > Contrast. } zly bear, sloth, and 11a- 
potamus, and camel. J ' lua. 

Native Domestic Animals. 
The horse, ox, sheep, goat, ^ r ^^^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ 

and hog; hen, duck, ^ Contrast, j ^he turkey, 
goose, and dog. ^ ' 

Indigenous Products. 
Wheat, barley, rye, oats, i 



buckwheat, rice, pease 
and beans ; orchard 
fruits ; garden vegeta- 
bles ; spices, silk, cotton, 
flax, hemp, coffee, sugar- 
cane. 



. Contrast. 



Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, 
bananas, pineapples, to- 
bacco, cocoa, mahogany. 



WOEKING MODELS IN GEOGEAPHY. 



253 



THE OLD WOELD. 



TUE NEW WOELD. 



1300 millions. 



Less tliau half Caucasian. 



Population. 
Contrast, 

Race. 

Contrast. 



100 millions. 



More than half Caucasian. 



In the temj)erate zone. 



Great Nations. 

Similarity. In the temperate zone. 

Great Cities. 



In the temperate zone be- 
tween 40° and 50° K L. 
London, Paris, Berlin, 
Vienna, Constantinople, 
Peking, Tokio, Liver- 
pool. 



' Similarity. ^ 



In the temperate zone be- 
tween 40° and 50° N. L. 
New York, Philadelphia, 
Chicago, St. Louis, Bos- 
ton, San Francisco, Bal- 
timore, Montreal. 



SECTION X. — PHYSICAL FEATUEES OF THE GLOBE. 

JSfote. — Pupils in the highest class in a grammar-school 
ought to have the following leading facts : 

1. Grand Divisions. 

EASTERN CONTINENT. WESTERN CONTINENT. 



Asia, Africa, Europe. Twice the 
area of the Western conti- 
nent. 



Nortli America, South America. 
Half the area of the Eastern 
continent. 



2. Oceans. 
Pacific and Indian. | Atlantic. 

3. Chief Mountain Ranges. 



Himalaya, Altai, Alps. 



Rocky, Andes, Sierra Nevada, Al- 
leghany. 



4. Highest Peaks. 



Mt. Everest, Mont Blanc, Kiliman- 
jaro. 



Illampu [or Sorata], Orizaba. 



254 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

EASTEKN* CONTINENT. 



WESTERN CONTINENT. 



5. Highest Plateaus. 



Thibet, Abyssinia, Iran. 



Pacific Highlands, Mexico, Pasco, 
Bolivia, Quito. 



G. Great Plains. 



1. Russia, 2. Siberia. 3. Yang- 
tse-Kiano;. 



1. Amazon. 3. Mississippi. 3. 
La Plata. 



7. Chief Rivers. 



Yang-tse-Kiang, Lena, Nile, Con- 
go [or Livingstone], Volga. 



Amazon, Mississippi, La Plata, St. 
Lawrence, Columljia. 



8. Chief Lakes. 



Caspian (salt), Victoria Nyanza, 
Albert Nyanza, Aral (salt). 



Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, 
Great Bear. 



9. Ocean Currents. 



Pacific Equatorial, Indian Equa- 
torial, Japan Current, Austra- 
lian, Mozambique. 



Atlantic Equatorial, Gulf Stream, 
Greenland Arctic, Humboldt 
or Peruvian. 



10. Chief Seas. 
Mediterranean, China, Arabian. | Caribbean, Behring. 

11. Bays and Gulfs. 
Bengal, Guinea, Carpentaria. ] Mexico, Hudson, Baffin. 



12. Peninsulas 
Hindostan, Arabia, Malacca, 
Spain, Italy, Greece, Scandina- 
via. 



Florida, Yucatan, Alaska, Cali- 
fornia. 



13. Noted Capes. 



Good Hope, Verd, Guardafui, 
North, Comorin, Palnias. 



Cape Horn, St. Roque, St. Lucas, 
Farewell, Mendocino, Barrow, 
Race, Hatteras. 



WOEKING MODELS IN GEOGKAPIIY. 255 

EASTERN CONTINENT. WESTERN CONTINENT. 

14. Largest Islands. 



I.Australia. 2. Papua. S.Borneo. 
4. Madao-ascar. 5. Sumatra. 



1. Greenland. 2. Newfoundland. 
3. Cuba. 4. Ilayti. 



15. Most Important Island Groups. 



1. The British Isles. 

2. The Japan Isles. 

3. The East Indies. 



1. The West Indies. 
3. The Sandwich. 
3. Aleutian. 



SECTION XI. GENEKAL REVIEW QUESTIONS. 

Note. — For liigli- grade classes. Dictate one set of 
five questions at tlie beginning of the week. Let the pu- 
pils hunt up the answers from their text-books, and take 
a written examination at the end of the week, or make 
the recitation an oral one. 

Set I. 

1. How is it supposed that the earth assumed the shape of an ob- 

late spliey'oid ? 

2. Why are the troj^ics and the jDolar circles 23-1-° from the equa- 

tor and the poles ? 

3. What circles on the globe would not exist if the earth's axis 

were perpendicular to the plane of its orbit ? 

4. If the rotation of the earth were to cease, what change would 

be made in the distribution of the water on the surface of 
the globe ? What would be the efiect on ocean currents. 

5. What three motions has the earth ? 

Set II. 

1. What are the two main causes of a difference in climate ? 

2. What are the causes of the unequal length of day and night? 

3. How is the chanc:e of seasons caused ? 



256 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

4. What is the length of the longest day where you live ? At the 

Arctic Circle ? At the equator ? At the north pole ? 

5. At what places on the earth is the sun ever vertical at noonday ? 

Set III. 

1. How are trade-winds caused ? 

2. State the two chief causes of ocean currents. 

3. Why is the climate of the w^estern coast of North America 

milder and more uniform than that of the eastern coast ? 

4. Causes of the dense fogs that prevail oif Newfoundland, the 

coast of Peru, and Alaska ? 

5. Cause of the excellent fishing-grounds at the Grand Banks and 

near the Japan Isles ? 

Set IV. 

1. Name the five chief ocean currents. 

2. Describe the Gulf Stream and the Japan Current. 

3. What winds chiefly supply rain in the north temperate zone ? 

4. Why is the greatest rainfall in tlie tropics ? 

5. Where are glaciers found, and how are they produced ? 

Set V. 

1. Name the two chief mountain ranges in each of the five grand 

divisions. 

2. Name the highest mountain peak in each of the grand divisions, 

3. Name five noted volcanoes. 

4. Name the chief river of each of the grand divisions. 

5. Name four great rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean ; four 

into the Atlantic ; four into the Pacific ; four into the Indian. 

Set VI. 

1. Name the four chief bays or gulfs in the Eastern hemisphere; 

four in the Western. 

2. Name the four chief island groups in each hemisphere. 

3. Name five noted capes in the track of commercial routes in the 

Old World. 

4. Name five noted capes in the New World. 

5. Name five rivers noted for great internal trade. 



WORKING MODELS IN GEOGKAPIIY. 257 



Set VII. 

1. Name the five chief cities of the Old World ; of the New. 

2. Name four large cities in the Southern hemisphere. 

3. Name the five chief seaports of the world. 

4. Name the five great j^owers of Europe, and the three chief 

cities of each. 

Set VIII. 

1. Area and population, in round numbers, of France, Germany, 

and Austria. 

2. Area and population of China, British India, Russia. 

3. Population of each of the grand divisions. 

4. Population of the world. 

5. Population of the five great commercial cities of the globe. 

Set IX. 

1. By what three commercial routes can you travel round the 

world from London ? 

2. How can a grain-ship sail from Chicago to Liverpool ? 

3. How could you travel by water from Odessa to St. Petersburg? 

4. What five cities would you pass on a steamboat trip from New 

Orleans to Pittsburgli ? 

5. How could you go from New York to Melbourne ? 

Set X. 

Geograpliy of oiir own country. 

1. Area, population, and five chief cities. 

2. Four physical divisions. 

3. Five leading exports. 

4. Five leading imports. 

5. The five countries with which our commercial relations are 

most important. 



258 MExnoDs of TEAcnma. 



ClIAPTEK IV. 

LANGUAGE -LESSONS AND COMPOSITION FOR BEGINNERS. 

Note for Teachers. — E'otwithstanding the extent to 
which modern elementary text-books on language-lessons 
have been introduced, there are still many schools where 
there is nothing in the hands of pupils except the old- 
style text-book on grammar. The following models and 
exercises are intended mainly for teachers who have to 
prepare their own work from lack of a book in the hands 
of pupils. 

SECTION I. EXERCISES FOR BEGINNERS. 

Direction. — Write a lesson on the blackboard, and let 

your scholars copy it on their slates or on paper. Then 

let them exchange, compare with the blackboard, and 

correct. 

1. Tlic Golden Egg. 

There was once a poor man who had a goose tliat laid a golden 
Qg^ every day. This man was getting rich very fast, but he wanted 
to become rich still faster. 

So he killed his goose, expecting to find in her a whole nestful 
of golden eggs. He was rightly punished by finding none at all. 

2. Story of Grip. 

Grip was a good dog that went round the streets of a great city 
with a poor old blind man. Grip led his master by a string. He 
would hold the old man's hat in his mouth, and look wistfully at 
people as if he wanted to say, " Please give my poor old master a 
little money." 



LANGUAGE -LESSOXS AND COMPOSITION FOK BEGINNEES. 259 

Grii) was always true to his master. He often wanted to play 
w^ith other dogs, but he never once, in all his life, ran away. When 
the old man could no longer go out of his room, Grip used to take 
his master's hat in his mouth and go out on the streets to beg for 
money, which he would joyfully carry to the helpless old blind man. 

3. IIow to Write Names. 
Rule I. — The particular name given to one person, 
j)lace, or tiling ninst begin with a cajyital letter. 

Examples. 

„ C George Washington. 

Persons. { ^^ ^f „ .. "^^ 

( Martha Washmgton. 

_-, ( London, Paris, Rome. 
Places. { ^^ _^ , ^, ., - , - . 
( New 1 ork, Philadelphia. 

^, . C Bunker Hill Monument. 
Things. < t,, -^^ . , 

( The Pyramids. 

In a similar manner write yonr own name ; the name 

of yonr father and your mother, and the names of live of 

your schoolmates. 

In a similar manner write — 

1. The name of the place in which you live. 

2. The name of your county and State. 

3. The name of any State near yours. 

4. The name of any river you know of. 

5. The names of three men and three women that you know. 

4. Names of Persons. 
Hule II. — When only the initial letter of a given name 
is written, put a period after each initial. When a per- 
son has two given names, it is customary to write only 
the initial of the second or middle name. 

( Charles Henry Brown= Charles H. Broion. 
Models. < James Knox V6\kz=z James K. Pollc. 
( Ella Maria Simth=EUa M. Smith. 



260 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

In a similar manner write tlie following : 

1. Your own name, your fiither's name, and your motlier's. 

2. The names of your brothers and sisters. 

3. The names of live of your schoolmates. 

4. The name of the President ; of the Governor of your State ; and 

of the Superintendent of Schools in your State, city, town, or 
count}^ 

5. The names of five great men. 

5. Composition Exercise. 

Select one of the following subjects, and write all that 
you can remember of any story relating to it that you 
ever read or heard : 

1. Story about a Dog. 3. Story about a Bear. 

3. Story about a Lion. 4. Story about a Wolf. 

6. Composition Exercise. 

"Write any story told to you by your mother or your 
father. Exchange and correct. 

Note. — If it is possible for pupils to provide themselves 
with a small blank-book, it is a good plan to require the 
most interesting of the exercises to be copied into it ; 
otherwise pupils should be required to preserve and file 
their exercises. 

7. Composition Exercise. 

Write a short account of your last vacation ; stating 
where you went, what you saw, what you did, and what 
kind of a time you had. 

Directions. 
Begin each word of the heading of your composition 
with a capital— thus: "My Last Vacation." Begin each 
new sentence with a capital and end it with a period. 



LANGUAGE-LESSONS AND COMPOSITION FOE BEGINNEES. 261 

Exchange and correct the misspelled words, the mistakes 
in writing the word /, and the errors in the use of cap- 
itals. 

8. Criticism. 

Write the following child's composition on the board, 
and let the pupils criticise it : 

My Last Vacation. [Sixth Grade, age 8.] 
I had a very plesaut time in yacation. I went to a picnick and i 
had a very j^ilesant time, and i went to see the Forth of July to a 
ladies house, i did not go to the country. — Louise. 

9. Apostrophe and s ['«]. 
Icule III. — When a noun denoting but one 2:>erson, 
place, or thing is used to express ownership, the noun 
must be written with the apostrophe and s added — thus : 
Mary's book; the horse's mane. 

EXEKCISES. 

Copy the following examples, and be careful to write 
the apostrophe and s : 

1. I have Henry's slate, George's pencil, and Harriet's reading- 

book. 

2. That is my father's horse. 

3. My grandmother's pies are good. 

4. I found a robin's nest in my father's orchard. 

5. Everybody's business is nobody's business. 

Mule IV. — When nouns denoting more than one per- 
son, place, or thing, and ending in s, are used to express 
possession, the nouns must be written with only an apos- 
trophe added — thus : Horses' manes ; birds' nests. 

Exercises. 

Copy the following examples : 

1. My sister attends the Girls' High-school. 



2G2 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



1 



2. My brother goes to the Boys' Grammar-school. 

3. The gh-ls' compositions were very good. 

4. The boys' papers were neatly written. 

5. Ladies' shoes and men's boots. 



Exercise. 
Copy all the nouns denoting ownership from a reading- 
lesson assigned for this purpose. 

10. Sentence-making. 
AVrite with each of the following nouns a simple de- 
clarative sentence by using one vcrh to express the char- 
acteristic sound made by each of the kinds of animals 
named. 

Direction. 
Each sentence must consist of only two words. Each 
sentence must begin with a capital and end with a period. 

Model Sentence. — Bees buzz. 



Bees 


Doves 


Lambs 


Peacocks 


Bears 


Ducks 


Lions 


Pigs 


Bulls 


Eagles 


Mice 


Robins 


Cats 


Flies 


Monkeys 


Sheep 


Cows 


Frogs 


Owls 


Snakes 


Chickens 


Hens 


Oxen 


Swallows 


Dogs 


Horses 


Parrots 


Yv^olvcs 



Exchange exercises and correct one another's mistakes ; 
then rewrite your corrected sentences. 

Exercise. 
Change each of the sentences that you wrote in the 
preceding lesson into an interrogative sentence ; that is, 
one that asks a question. 



LANGUAGE-LESSONS AND COMPOSITION FOR BEGINNERS. 2G3 



Direction. 

Use only three words in each sentence. Eacli sentence 
most begin with a capital and end wdth an interrogation 
point. 

Model Sentence. — Do bees buzz ? 

Exercise. 
Change each of the sentences that you wrote in the 
preceding lesson into an exclamatory sentence ; that is, a 
sentence expressing wonder or surprise. 

Direction. 

Use only four words in each sentence. Each sentence 
must begin w^ith the word How, and end w^ith an exclama- 
tion mark. 

Model Sentence. — How tlie bees buzz ! 



11. The Cries of Animcils. 
Make simple sentences by placing the name of the 
proper animal before each verb. 



bray 


caw 


chirp 


grunt 


liiiiii 


l)ark 


squeak 


drum 


drone 


bay 


cluck 


croak 


growl 


liowl 


neigli 


moan 


bellow 


yelp 


whinny 


twitter 


mew 


coo 


chatter 


growl 


purr 


quack 


baa 


gobble 


bleat 


scream 


roar 


snarl 


pipe 


buzz 


squeal 


sing 


crow 


croak 


hoot 


caterwaul 


moo 


cackle 


screech 


whistle 


low 


hiss 


talk 





2(}4: METHODS OF TEACHING. 

13. Letter-writing. 
Require the pupils to write a short letter about their 
school to their father or mother. 

Criticism. 
Put the following first attempt, by a child nine years 
old, upon the blackboard, and let the pupils point out the 
mistakes : 

My Dear Mamma 

I am a good girl in school And I know my lessons well. This is 
the first time I ever wrote a letter to you. And I want to Maite well. 
I like to come to school. And get my lessons well. We write on the 
blackboard with chalk and we draw. I am nomber fourteen in^my 
class. I am going to try to get promoted by Christmas. I would 
like to get some Christmas presence If I can. Please exquse my 
writing as my ink was black. 

Your affectionate child 

Emma 
13. Punctuation. — The Comma. 

Rvle V. — "When only two nouns, verbs, adjectives, or 
adverbs are joined by mid, they are not separated by a 
comma ; but when more than two are so connected, they 
must be marked off by commas. 

Copy the following examples of the rule : 

1. Men and women work in the mill. [No comma.] 

2. Men, women, and boys work. [Use commas.] 

3. Boys run and play. [No comma.] 

4. Boys run, play, jump, skate, and slide. 

5. The apples are large and red. [No comma.] 
G. The apples are large, red, mellow, and sweet. 

7. Ilattie writes neatly and correctly. 

8. Ilattie writes neatly, correctly, and rapidly. 



LANGUAGE-LESSONS AND COMPOSITION FOIi BEGINNERS. 2G5 

14. ComjJosition. 

Subject. — All Account of Myself. 

1. Begin every sentence with a capital. 
Directions, -j 2. Begin with a capital each word of the subject, cxcej^t of. 
3. Do not string sentences together with anch. 



Subjects. 



15. Comjwsition. 

1. How to set the table. [For girls.] 

2. IIow to behave at the table. [For boys.] 



IG. Comjjosition. 
"Write from memory a short sketch of any one of th.e 
following stories, selecting the one you like best. Teach- 
ers will pass the compositions to a higher grade to be 
corrected. 

1. Tom Thumb. 3. Robinson Crusoe. 

2. Children in the Wood. 4. Sindbad the Sailor. 

5. Any one of Hans Andersen's Tales. 

17. Composition. 
Write a description of the school that yon attend. Fill 
ont the following outlines, making a paragraph out of 
each heading: 

My School. — Outlines. 
In what city or town, on what street, or in what part 

of the town or village. 
Large or small ; of what material ; color ; num])er of 
rooms, etc, 
^ Number of classes or grades ; number of scholars ; 
\ names of teachers ; m wdiat class you are, etc. 
State what you study ; what studies you like best ; 
and anything else of interest. 
12 



•to 



1. Situation. 

2. Building. 

3. Tliescliool. 

4. Studies. 



266 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



18. Observation and Memory. 
I. Write an interesting anecdote or story about any one of the 
following : 

1. Dogs. 2. Bears. 3. Elej^hants. 4. Wolves. 
II. Write what you know about liow or where any of the follow- 
ing birds build their nests: 
1. Swallows. 3. Crows. 3. Woodpeckers. 4. Orioles. 

III. Write what you know about how or where any of the follow- 

ing wild animals live. 

1. Foxes. 2. Rabbits. 3. Squirrels. 4. Deer. 

IV. State where each of the following species offish is found and 

how caught : 

1. Shiners. 3. Pickerel. 5. Mackerel. 

2. Perch. 4. Trout. 6. Cod. 

19. Wild Animals. 
Write a composition by answering the following ques- 
tions about such of the following wild animals as live in 
your part of the country : 

1. In what places are they found ? 

2. What do they eat, and how do they obtain their food ? 

1. Foxes. 3. Rabbits. 5. Raccoons. 

2. Woodchucks. 4. Bears. G. Squirrels. 

20. Domestic Animals. 
About the following animals write whatever you have 
observed that would lead you to think they know any- 
thing : 

1. Dogs. 3. Horses. 5. Cattle. 

2. Cats. 4. Hogs. 6. Sheep. 

21. Comjwsitio?!. 
Select one of the most interestiuG: of the following sub- 



1 



LANGUAGE-LESSONS AND COMPOSITION FOE BEGINNEES. 2G7 

jects, and write cabout it the best story that you ever heard 
or read : 

1. Dogs. 3. Wolves. 5. The Lion. 7. Ants. 

2. Bears. 4. Horses. G. The Elephant. 8. Bees. 

22. Go7nposition. 

Write something that you yourself have observed about 
the actions or habits of any of tlie following animals : 

1. Dogs. 3. Mice. 5. Crows. 7. Bees. 9. Squirrels. 

2. Cats. 4. Rats. 6. Robins. 8. Swallows. 10. Foxes. 

23. Composition. 

Write all you know about hoio or where the following 
birds build their nests : 

1. Robins. 5. Bluebirds. 9. Sparrows. 

2. Swallows. G. Bobolinks. 10. Humming-birds. 

3. Crows. 7. Woodpeckers. 11. Nighthawks. 

4. Larks. 8. Golden Robin. 12. Eagles. 

24. General Exercises. 
L Write a letter to your father or mother, and then compare it 

with the first one you wrote. 
IL Commit to memory, and then write, two stanzas of poetry, as- 
signed by your teacher. 
HI. Write a letter to anybody you choose. 
IV. Write the story of Jack the Giant-killer. 
V. Write the story of Cinderella. 
VI. Write all you can remember about the " house that Jack 

built." 
VII. Write all you know about the trade or occupation of your 

father or mother. 
VIII. Write about a visit to any of your friends or relatives. 
IX. Write a letter to your teacher telling what you intend to do 

during your next vacation. 
X. Write a letter to your doll, telling lier how to write a letter 
to you. [For girls.] 



268 METHODS OF TEACIimG. 



ClIAPTEK Y. 

PRACTICAL COMPOSITION IN GRAMMAR GRADES. 

1. Special Directions. 
I. Avoid " fine writing." 

II. Never use two words where one will fully express your mean- 
ing. 

III. Avoid long and complicated sentences. 

IV. Divide into paragraphs and punctuate as you write. 

V. In correcting your first rough draft, observe the following or- 
der : 

{a.) Cross out any adjectives^ or other words, that can be spared. 

(h.) Interline any omitted words, or transpose any words, 
phrases, or clauses to a better position in the sentence. 

(c) Substitute more exact words whenever, by so doing, you 
can make the sentence clearer. 

{d.) Go over your composition very carefully, with reference 
to — 1. Spelling; 2. Capitals; 3. Punctuation; 4. Grammat- 
ical correctness ; 5. Dot your *'s and cross your it's. 
YI. Copy in legible hand-writing. 

2. General Principles of Sentence-maMng. 

1. Every sentence must be complete. It must contain at least one 

principal subject and one principal predicate, each of which 
must eitlier be expressed or clearly implied. 

2. Explanatory words, phrases, or clauses must be connected as 

closely as possible to the M'ords which they explain or 
modify. 

3. In simple sentences, be careful about the position of words and 

phrases ; in complex sentences, about the position of clauses 
and the use of connectives ; and in compound sentences, 
about the* use of conjunctions of the and type. 



PEACTICAL COMPOSITION IN GEAMMAR GRADES. 269 

4. When there are several adverbial phrases or clauses in a sen- 

tence, they should be distributed over the sentence, instead 
of being crowded together near the close. 

5. Avoid writing long complex or compound sentences. It is 

better for beginners to write short sentences. 
G. Use only w^ords wdiose meaning you fully comprehend. 

7. Express simple ideas in plain words. 

8. Avoid the use of high-sounding adjectives and high-flown lan- 

guage. 

9. Use only w^ords enough clearly to express your meaning. 

3. The Paragrapli. 

I. A paragraph is a closely connected series of sentences relating 
to the same subject, or to some particular part of a subject. 
Sentences are built w]i of words, phrases, and clauses; para- 
graphs are made up of simple, complex, or compound sen- 
tences. Composition consists of a succession of connected 
paragraphs. 
II. The art of dividing a piece of composition into paragraphs is 
best learned by noticing carefully the paragraphing in your 
readers, histories, or other books ; but the following direc- 
tions may be of use to beginners : 

1. In general, make a new paragraph whenever you make a new 

turn of thought. 

2. Denote a new paragraph by beginning the sentence a short 

space to the right of the left-hand margin. 

3. The sentences included in one paragraph should all relate to 

the same division of the subject. 

4. The line of thought should be continued between paragraphs, 

if necessary, by some such connectives as and, hut, moreover, 
hotDever, thus, at the same time, etc. 

I. NARRATION AND DESCRIPTION. 

Select one of the following subjects, and write an ac- 
count of where you went, what you did, and what you 



270 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



saw on that occasion. Describe events in the order of 
their occurrence : 

I. 



1. The Fourth of July. 

2. Thanksgiving-clay. 

3. Christmas-day. 



4. New-year's-day. 

5. May-day. 

6. My Last Holiday. 



1. A Picnic. 

2. A Boat Excursion. 

3. A Fishing Excursion. 



II. 



4. My Longest Journey. 

5. A Sleigh-ride. 

C. My Flower-garden. 



1. My Pets. 

3. My School and Teachers. 

3. My Autobiography. 



III. 

4. My School Troubles. 

5. My Favorite Studies. 

6. Housekeeping. 



II. LETTER-WRITING. 

1. Write a letter to some friend or relative, giving an account of 

your school-work. 

2. Write a letter introducing your friend John Smith to John 

Brown. 

3. Write a letter applying for a position as clerk or teacher. 

4. Write an order to some bookseller for some books that you 

wish to buy. 

5. Invite your friend to dine with you. 

6. Write a letter of thanks for a present. 



III. IMAGINATIVE LETTERS. 

1. To Santa Clans. 

2. To the Man in the Moon. 

3. To Old Father Time. 

4. To the Emperor of China. 

5. To the author of any one of your school-books, criticising or 

commcndinc: his book. 



PRACTICAL COMPOSITION IN GRAMMAR GRADES. 271 
IV. ABSTRACTS FROM MEMORY. 

Eead aloud to the class, and let pupils rewrite from 

memory. 

The Ugly Duck. 

Towards evening the little Duck came to a miserable liut wliere 
there lived an old woman with her Tomcat and her Hen. The Tom- 
cat could arch his back and purr, and the Hen could lay eggs and 
cluck. They were both very proud of their accomplishments. 

In the morning, when they saw the little Ugly Duck, the Tomcat 
began to purr and the Hen began to cluck. " Can you lay eggs V 
said Mistress Hen. "No," said the Ugly Duck. Then the Tom- 
cat, who was master of the house, said, fiercely, " Can you arch your 
back and purr?" "No," said the frightened Duck. "Then you 
must hold your tongue when sensible people are speaking," said 
Master Tomcat. 

" I think I would like to swim," timidly said the little Duck. 
"Ask the Cat about it," said the Hen; "he is the wisest animal I 
know — ask him if he likes to swim." 

"Ask the old woman," said the Tomcat, "there is nobody wiser 
than she is; ask her if she likes to put her head under water." 

"You don't quite understand me," said the poor little Duck. 
" Don't be conceited," said both the Tomcat and the Hen, with one 
voice ; " only learn to lay eggs and to purr." 

Exercises. 

Write from memory the story of — • 



1. Bluebeard. 

2. Robin Hood. 

3. Little Red Riding-hood. 

4. Cinderella. 

5. The Forty Thieves. 



G. Aladdin. 

7. A Fairy Tale. 

8. Sindbad and the Diamonds.' 

9. Crusoe and Friday. 
10. Crusoe and his Goat. 



V. STORIES OF THE IMAGINATION. 

Select from the following subjects the one that you like 
best, and write a story about it : 



272 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



1. A Ghost Story. 

2. A Witch Story. 

3. A Fairy Story. 

4. My Castle in Spain. 

5. What I would do if I were Rich. 



G. Autobiography of a Doll. 

7. Autobiography of a Dollar. 

8. Autobiography of a Spinning- 

wheel. 



^ 



VI. SHORT DESCRIPTIONS OF TREES. 

Fill out the following outlines : 

I. The Oalc. — Size; height; leaves; varieties or kinds; w^ood; 

hardness; toughness. Uses: ships; furniture; farming tools'; 
fuel. Acorns ; bark and its uses. 

II. The Pine. — Where found; size; height; leaves; cones; varie- 

ties. Uses : buildings ; furniture ; ships ; masts ; fuel, etc. 

Exercises. 

In a similar manner write short sketches of such of the 
following trees as you have seen growing in your part of 
the country : 

1. The Maple. 4. The Birch. 7. The Sprace. 

2. The Elm. 5. The Chestnut. 8. The Hemlock. 

3. The Beech. 6. The Walnut. 9. The Sycamore. 

VII. METALS AND MINERALS. 

Fill out the outlines with all you know about the fol- 
lowing metals and minerals: 

I. /;'6>;2.— Where found ; how mined. Qualities : tenacity, hard- 
ness, etc. Kinds: cast; wrought; steel. Uses : machinery ; 
kitchen utensils ; implements ; cutlery, etc. 

II. Gold. — In what countries found ; color and qualities. Uses : 

money; watches; jewelry; gilding; dentistry, etc. 

III. Granite. — Where found ; color ; hardness ; durability. Com- 

position : quartz ; felspar ; mica. Uses. 



rRACTICAL COMPOSITION IN GEAMMAR GRADES. 273 

Exercises. 
In a similar manner, write all you know about each of 



le following : 






1. Silver. 3. Copper. 


5. Marble. 


7. Limestone. 


2. Lead. 4. Coal. 


C. Sandstone. 


8. Quicksilver. 



VIII. MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. 

Reproduce this model from memory : 

A Dime. — A dime is a coin made from silver with which is mixed 
a small quantity of copper. It is coined in the United States Mint. 
The solid bars of silver, called iulUon, are melted, refined, and cast 
into smaller bars, which are then rolled out into long, thin, narrow 
strips like ribbons. These ribbons are passed under a powerful ma- 
chine, which cuts out the circular pieces of silver perfectly smooth. 
These smooth pieces are then stamped in a die, which gives them 
the ornamental impressions seen on a dime. 

Exercises. 
Write short descriptions of such of tlie following things 
as are made in your vicinity: 

1. A Nail. 3. A Brick. 5. A Shoe. 7. Cotton Cloth. 

2. A Pin. 4. A Boot. 6. A Horseshoe. 8. Woollens. 

IX. GEOGRAPHICAL COMPOSITIONS. 

3fi/ Native Place. 
In your description use the following outlines, making 
a paragraph out of each heading. Mark a new paragraph 
by beginning the first line half an inch to the right of the 
left-hand margin. At home, ask your parents about what 
you do not know. 

r Kamc of place ; in what State and country ; on w^hat 
1 . Situation. } river, lake, bay, or other water ; near what large 
( city or town. 

12'^ 



274 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

r Size, population, trade, railroads, steamers, ships, 
2. Description. < mills, factories, farm-products, lumber, live-stock, 
( etc. 

i Mention any objects of special interest, such as moun- 
tains, hills, forests, lakes, ponds, rivers, parks, gar- 
dens, buildings, etc. Close with any interesting 
event in the history of the place. 



X. GENERAL EXERCISES. 

I. Select your own subject, and write the best composition you 
can, being particularly careful about spelling, punctuation, 
and capitals. 
II. Write a letter to a friend in the city, describing the appear- 
ance of the country at the time you write. [For country 
scholars.] 

III. Write a letter to a friend in the country, telling what is going 

on in the city. [For city scholars.] 

IV. Write a letter to your father, telling him what you have 

learned during the past year. 
v. Composition. — " Our School Games." 
VI. Composition. — " Going a-Fishing." [For boys.] 
VII. Composition.—" A Fairy Tale." [For girls.] 
VIII. Composition.—" How to Make Bread." [For girls.] 
IX. My Best Story-book. 
X. Write from memory the best piece of poetry you know. 



XI. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Reproduce the following from memory, compare with 
the original, and correct errors : 

1. The Boyhood of Lincohi. 

Abraham Lincoln, the son of a farmer, was born in Kentucky in 

1809 ; but his youth was passed mainly in Indiana. His father had 

chosen to settle at the flirthest verge of civilization. Around him 

was a dense forest, still wandered over by the Indians. The next 



PK ACTIO AL COMPOSITION IN GEAMMAK GRADES. 275 

neighbor was two miles away. There were no roads, no bridges, no 
inns. 

Abraham had little schooling. Indeed, there was scarcely a school 
within his reach ; and if all the days of his school-time were added 
together, they would scarcely make up one year. His father was 
poor, and Abraham was needed on the farm. There was timber to 
fell, there were fences to build, fields to plough, sowing and reaping 
to be done. Abraham led a busy life, and knew well, while yet a 
boy, what hard work meant. Like all boys who come to anything 
great, he had a devouring thirst for knowledge. He borrowed all 
the books in his neighborhood, and read them by the blaze of the 
logs which his own axe split. He entered a small store as clerk, 
then became a lawyer, next a member of the Legislature of Illinois, 
and, finally, in 1861, he became President of the United States. 

2. Alfred the Great. 
[Adapted from Dickens's Child's History of England.'\ 

This noble king possessed all the Saxon virtues. Misfortune 
could not subdue him, and prosperity could not spoil him. He was 
hopeful in defeat, and generous in success. He loved justice, free- 
dom, truth, and knowledge. In his care to instruct his people, he 
did a great deal to preserve the old Saxon tongue. He made just 
laws for his people. He founded schools and appointed upright 
judges. He left England better, wiser, happier in all ways, than he 
found it. 

Under his reign the best points of the English-Saxon character 
were developed. It has been the greatest character among the na- 
tions of the earth. Wherever the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons 
have gone or sailed, they have been patient and persevering. In 
Europe, Asia, Africa, America, the whole world over; in the desert, 
in the forest, on the sea, scorched by a burning sun, or frozen by ice 
that never meltS; the Saxon blood remains unchanged. Wherever 
the race goes, there law, industry, and safety for life and property 
are certain to arise. 



276 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Write a short account of any one of the following 
persons whose biography yon have read : 

1. Benjamin Franklin. 8. Alexander the Great. 

2. Andrew Jackson. 9. Mary Somerville. 

3. James Watt. 10. Mary Queen of Scots. 

4. Horace Greeley. 11. Florence Nightingale. 

5. Sir Walter Scott. 12. Empress Josephine. 
C. Kapoleon Bonaparte. 13. Joan of Arc. 

7. David Livini^stone. 14. Charles Dickens. 



XII. HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 

In the two following sketches, adapted from Dickens's 
CliiliVs History of England, take notice of the short, 
plain, pure English words that he uses. Reproduce from 
memory and criticise by comparing with the original. 

1. Reign of Queen Ellzcibeih. 
The reign of Queen Elizabeth was a glorious one. It is made 
memorable by the distinguished men that flourished in it. Apart 
from the great voyagers, statesmen, and scholars whom it produced, 
the names of Bacon, Spenser, and Shakespeare will always be re- 
membered with pride and veneration by the civilized world. It 
was a great reign for discovery, for commerce, and for English en- 
terprise and spirit in general. The queen was very popular, and, in 
her progresses or journeys about her dominions, was everywhere re- 
ceived with the liveliest joy. I think the truth is she was not half 
so good as she has been made out, and not half so bad as she has 
been made out. She had many fine qualities ; but she was coarse, 
vain, capricious, and treacherous. 

2. The Great Plague of London. 
In 1665 the Great Plague broke out in London. The disease soon 
spread so fast that it was necessary to shut up the houses in which 



PKACTICAL COMPOSITION IN GRAMMAR GRADES. 277 

sick people were, and to cut tlicni off from communication witli the 
living. Every one of these houses was marked on the outside of the 
door with a red cross, and the words " Lord, have mercy on us !" 
The streets were all deserted, grass grew in the public ways, and 
there was a dreadful silence in the air. When night came on, dis- 
mal rumblings used to be heard in the streets, and these were the 
wheels of the death-carts, attended by men with veiled fliccs, who 
rang doleful bells, and cried, in a loud and solemn voice, " Bring out 
your dead !" The corpses put into these carts were buried by torch- 
light in great pits, without burial service. In the general fear, chil- 
dren ran away from their parents, and parents from their children. 
In four months more than one hundred thousand people had died 
in the close and unwholesome city. 

Write a short sketcli of any one of the following events, 
selecting the one that you like best : 

1. Battle of Bunker Hill. 4. Settlement of Plymouth. 

2. Battle of New Orleans. 5. Settlement of Pennsylvania. 

3. Paul Jones's Sea Fight. G. Settlement of your Native State. 

XIII. NATURAL HISTORY SKETCHES. 

1. The Mosquito. — This bloodthirsty insect is common to all parts 
of the globe. Its noisy buzz and sharp, stinging bite are familiar to 
all. It lays its eggs, several hundred in number, on the surface of 
stagnant water. They are glued together so that they float on the 
surface. In a few days the eggs hatch, and the larvm come out into 
the water in the shape of icrigglers. These, after a life of two or 
three weeks, change to tlie j^uj^cc form, and float on the surface. In a 
week more the skin of the pitpa bursts open, and a full-grown mos- 
quito flies away into the air, liungry for blood. 

2. The Frog. — What boy has not thrown a stone at a frog, and yet 
how few know anything about the wonderful transformations which 
this amphibious animal undergoes ! 

The frog begins life as a tadpole, or polUwig., hatched from an Ggg 
floating in the water. In this state it breathes, like fishes, through 
its gills. After several weeks it begins to undergo a metamorpTiosis ; 



278 METHODS OF TExiCIIING. 

that is, a change of form. Two hind-legs begin to grow out, like 
buds on a tree ; then the fore-legs burst through the skin, and the 
tail dwindles away. The gills are slowly changed into lungs like 
those of air-breathing animals. The tadpole has become a land-ani- 
mal, living on insects and worms. 

Exercises. 
Write what you know about the following insects. 
Exchange and correct ; then read aloud in the class : 

1. The Butterfly. G. The Hornet. 

3. The Silk-worm. 7. The House Fly. 

3. The Bumblebee. 8. The Grasshopper. 

4. The Honey-bee. 9. The Ant. 

5. The Wasp. 10. The Cricket. 



WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 279 



Chapter YI. 

WOEKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 

Note for Teachers. — Many of the exercises given in 
tliis chapter do not differ materially from those found in 
most modern text-books on language-lessons and gram- 
mar. But, whatever text-book is used, the teacher needs 
to supplement it with additional exercises and illustra- 
tions. Particular attention is called to the oral exercises 
under the head of " The Complex Sentence." 



SECTION I. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE. 

1. A simple sentence consists of one subject combined with one 

predicate, making one statement. 

2. The suhject of a sentence consists of a noun, or one or more 

words filling the place of a noun, about which a statement is 
made. 

3. The 'predicate expresses a statement about the subject, and con- 

sists of a verb, or of a verb united with one or more words 
added to complete the statement. 

1. The Subject. 
The suhject of a simple sentence may be : 

Subject. Fi'edicate. 



1. Children (noun) 

2. They (pronoun) 

3. To play (infinitive) 

4. Playing in the fields (phrase) 



play, 
play. 

is pleasant, 
is pleasant. 



280 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Exercise. 

Write three sentences similar to 1 ; three similar to 
2; to 3; to 4. Exchange and correct errors in spell- 
ing, punctuation, capitals, and construction. 

2. The Predicate. 
The 2y^"<^d^cate of a simple sentence may be: 

Subject. Predicate. 

study (verb only), 
make honey (verb and object), 
are sweet (verb and adjective), 
are insects (verb and noun), 
expect to go (verb and infinitive 
object). 



1 



1. Scholars 

2. Bees 

3. Roses 

4. Ants 

5. We 



Exercise. 
Write two sentences similar to 1 ; two similar to 2 ; 
to 3 ; to 4; to 5. Exchange, report, and correct. 

3. Sentence-malcing. 

Write, with eacli of the following nouns for a subject, 
a sentence having a predicate consisting of the verb is 
with a noun in tbe predicate nominative : 
Model. — Arabia is a peninsula. 

1. The earth. 4. Italy. 7. Russia. 10. Arizona. 

2. Greenland. 5. The United States. 8. Germany. 11. Vesuvius. 

3. Arabia. G. New York. 9. Australia. 12. The Sahara. 

4. Sentence-mahing. 
Exercise I. 

With each of the following nouns write the verb ^6^ or 
ai'e and a noun in the predicate nominative : 
Model. — The bee is an insect. 
1. The bee. 4. Horses. *7. Iron. 10. Potatoes. 

3. The snake. 5. Robins. 8. Water. 11. Apples. 
3. The oyster. 0. liens. 9. Coal. 12. Wheat 



WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 281 

Exercise II. 

"With eacli of the preceding nouns put a j^i'cdicate ad- 
jective, instead of a predicate nominative. 

Model. — The bee is busy. 

Exercise III. 

Make a sentence with each of the nouns under 4 by 
stating that each does something. 

Model. — The bee makes honey. 

5. The Enlarged Suhject. 
The subject may be enlarged in various ways — thus : 

Subject Enlarged. Predicate. 

1. The c?<;mi/?^ fox (adjective) [ was caught. 

2. The Uou''s roar (possessive case) is terrible. 

3. The roar of the lion (phrase) is terrible. 

4. Brown the tailor (apposition) is honest, 

5. Learning to spell (infinitive) is hard. 

Exercise I. 

Write a sentence with each of the possessive enhirge- 
ments of the subject : 

Model. — The birds' nests were found, 

1. The birds' 5. The earth's 9, Our teacher's 

2, The parrot's G, The sun's 10. The sheep's 

3, The ladies' 7, The moon's 11, James's 

4. The girls' 8. The men's 12, Charles's 

Exercise II. 

Change each of the sentences tliat you wrote under 
the preceding exercise into a sentence with an adjective 
phrase, similar to 3. 

Model. — The nest of the birds was built in the tree. 



282 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Exercise III. 

With each of the following nouns write a sentence hav- 
ing a noun in apjoosition : 

Model. — Dickens, tlie great novelist, is dead. 

1. Smith 4. Burns 7. Washington 

2. Milton 5. AVhittier 8. Cicero 

3. Dickens 6. Fulton 9. Daniel Webster 

Exercise IV. 

With each of the preceding nouns write a sentence 
having the verb is or loas and a predicate nominative. 
Model. — Dickens was a great novelist. 

Exercise V. 

With each of the followino^ nouns WTite a sentence 
having the subject enlarged by an adjective phrase : 
Model. — The flowers of the field are beautiful. 

1. The flowers 4. The corn 7. The snow 

2. The birds 5. The mice 8. The ice 

3. The squirrels 6. The wood 9. The study 

G. The Predicate Enlarged. 
The predicate of a simple sentence may be enlarged in 
various ways — tlius : 

Subject. Fredicaie Enlarged. 



1. The sun 

2. The birds 

3. The teacher 

4. We visited 

5. The weather 
C. London 



shines Irightly (adverb). 

sing in tJie morning (adverbial 
l^hrase). 

assigned difficult lessons (adjec- 
tive). 

the capital of the United States 
(adjective phrase). 

is exceedingly cold (adverb). 

is the largest city on the globe (ad- 
jective and adj. phrase). 



WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 283 

Exercise I. 
Write with each of the following subjects a sentence 
having the predicate nominative enlarged by an adjective 
and an adjective phrase : 

Model. — The Amazon is the largest river on the globe. 

1. The Amazon 4. Paris 7. The Pacific 

2. The Mississippi 5. New York 8. Russia 

3. Mt. Everest 6. Boston 9. The Nile 

Exercise IT. 

Complete the following sets of sentences by adding ad- 
verbial phrases that answer the questions where f lohen f 
how? Ask your parents about anything you do not 
know. 

Model. — Cotton grows [where ?] in the Southern states. 

1. Birds fly 5. We exj^ort grain 



2. Coffee grows 

3. Tea grows 

4. The Missouri rises 



6. Silk is obtained 

7. Gold is found 

8. Coal is found 



Exercise III. 
i/bJt^?.— Plymouth was settled [when?] in 1C20. 



1. Plymouth was settled 

2. Jamestown was settled 

3. America was discovered 



4. My birthday will come 

5. Independence was declared 
G. Our school bejyan 



Exercise IV. 
Model. — We travelled [how ?] by rail. 

1. We travelled 4. The soldiers fought 

2. We write 

3. The rain fell 



5. Tliey treated us 

6. America was discovered 



284: METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Exercise V. — Adverbial Phrases of Cause. 
Complete the following sentences by adding plirases de- 
noting cause, making use of the prepositions hy, through, 
for, of, from, etc. : 

Model. — Waves are caused by winds. 



1. Day and niglit 

2. The seasons are caused 

3. They perished 



4. lie suffered 

5. The money was given 

6. He became sick 



Exercise VI. — Adverbial Phrases of Purpose. 
In completing the following sentences, make use of tlie 
prepositions or phrases such ^^ for, in order to, for the 
purpose of for the sake ofi or of an infinitive. 

Models. — 1. We eat to live. 2. We eat for pleasure. 
1. We live 



2. We went 

3. They study 



4. The boys ran away 

5. They went to Europe 

6. He went to California 



7. Tlie Enlarged Predicate Again. 
In a simple sentence the predicate may be enlarged by 
two or more phrases — thus: "We went (1) into the 
woods (2) with a gun." 

Exercises. 

Complete tlie following expressions by adding two or 
more phrases. Exchange and correct : 



1. The sun rises 

2. The brook is running 

3. I was born 



4. I live 

5. The Amazon flows 
G. The steamer sailed 



8. Order of Phrases. 
When a sentence contains two or more adverbial 



WOEKINa MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 285 

phrases, one of them may be used to introduce the sen- 
tence — thus : Li the winter of 1812, !Napoleoii invaded 
Russia with a great army. 

9. Punctuation of Introductory Phrases. 
Rule. — Introductory adverbial phrases, unless very 
short, are pointed off by a comma. 

Exercises. 

Complete and punctuate the following : 

1. In the winter of 1620, Plymouth 
3. In the year 1607, Jamestown 

3. In the year 1492, 

4. On the Fom'th of July, 1776, 

10. Empliatlc Order. 

If we wish to make a phrase emphatic, we j^lace it first 
in order in the sentence. 

Illdstrations. 

1. With a small detachment, Arnold and Allen captured Ticon- 

deroga. 

2. Of the laboring classes we know little. 

3. With the deepest interest w^e watched the combat. 

11. Order of Parts. 

1. The common or grammatical order of the main parts of a sim- 

ple declarative sentence is as follows : 

(l.)_ (2.) (3.) (4.) 

Adjectwe. Suhject. Predicate. Adve?'!) or AdverMal Plirase. 

Huge whales swim in the ocean. 

2. Interrogative sentences are introduced by the heli3ing verbs le, 

do, may, can, must, shall, will, have, etc., and the subject comes 



286 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

between tlie helping verb and the princii^al verb ; as, Do you 
hear ? 

3. The neuter verb to he, denoting present or past time, comes first 

in interrogative sentences ; as. Is he sick ? 

4. Exclamatory sentences are introduced by such words as liow and 

ichat ; as, Hoio beautiful is the rain ! What a hot day it is ! 

5. In imperative sentences, the verb is placed first, and the sub- 

ject is, in general, understood; as, Go [you] into the house. 
In poetry the grammatical order is often inverted. 

Exercise I. 

Change into interrogative sentences : 

1. Wc are going to-morrow. 

2. We shall start in the morning. 

3. He was doing wrong. 

Exercise II. 
Change into interrogative from imperative : 

1. Give me an apple. 

2. Obey your parents. 

3. Let me go with you. 

Exercise III. 

Change into declarative sentences : 

1. How wonderful is death ! 

2. How cold you look ! 

3. What great eyes you have ! 

4. What a piece of work is man ! 

5. How like a fawning publican he looks ! 

6. What a charming prospect ! 

Exercise IV. 

Change into the grammatical order of the prose sen- 
tence : 

1. Sweet is the voice of spring. 



WOKKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 287 

2. Westward the course of empire takes its way. 

3. In their ragged regimentals 
Stood the old Continentals. 

4. Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth 
Of simple beauty and rustic health. 



12. Idiomatic " There^ 

In many English sentences the word there is used to in- 
troduce the sentence, the subject coming after the verb. 

Exercises. 

Change the following sentences into the more elegant 
form introduced by tJwre : 

1. A man is in the house. 

2. Plenty of money is in the market. 

3. No mercy is in his heart. 

4. No terror is in your threats. 

5. No luck is about the house. 



SECTION II. — THE COMPLEX SENTENCE. 
1. Oral Exercise. — Conjunctions. 
Teachers will require each pupil, in turn, around the 
class, to make up an oral sentence containing the con- 
junction if ; such a sentence imist be complex. In the 
same manner require each pupil to compose a sentence 
with though / with hecause, that, than, as. 

1. If you go, I w^ill go too. 

2. I W' as absent, because I was sick. 
Models, -j 3. She said that she would stay. 

4. I am older than you are. 

5. I will do as you direct. 



288 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2, Oral Exercise. — Belative Pronouns. 
Keqiiire each pupil, in turn, to compose an oral sentence 
containing the relative pronoun loho ; a sentence with 
iDldch^ with idmt.^ with tliat. 

Direction. 

Make only declarative sentences. Interrogative sen- 
tences may be simple sentences. Do not use any one of 
the co-ordinate conjunctions, and, hut, or, nor, because the 
sentence would then become compound. 

1. The mau %vlio was sick is dead. 

2. I know iclio stole the apples, 
< 3. Tlie horse icMcli I bought ran away. 

4. I know icliat you want. 

5. I go to the same school tliat you do. 



Models. 



3. The Relative " That:' 

1. The word that is a difficult part of speech to deal with, because 

it has a variety of uses ; as, 

1. He said that I was wrong [subordinate conjunction]. 

2. Please give me that book [adjective]. 

3. That is my father's house [adjective i^ronoun]. 

4. He is the same man that you spoke of [relative pronoun]. 

2. That is correctly used as a relative pronoun instead of loho or 

iDhich — 

1. After the adjective same. 

2. After an adjective in the superlative degree. 

3. To prevent the repetition of who. 

Illustrations. 

1. This is the sa^ne lesson tJiat we had yesterday. 

2. He is the tallest man that I ever saw. 

3. It is not always the person who [that] knows most wdio 

makes the best teacher. 



WOKKma MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 289 

Exercise. 
Require eacli pnpil to compose an oral sentence similar 
to 1 ; to 2 ; to 3. 

4. Oral Exercise. — Relative Adxerls. 
Let each pnpil, in turn, compose an oral sentence with 
each of the following relative adverbs : ichen ; where ; 
why ; how. 

Direction. 

Do not make an interrogative sentence, because the ad- 
verbs would then becom.e interrogative instead of relative^ 
and the sentence might be a simple sentence. 

1. I will go iDlien you arc ready. 

2. Wo do not know icliere he is. 

3. Tell me icliy you are sad. 

4. I know lioiD you got it. 

Leading signs of the complex sentence : 

1. If, because, than, tliat, as [subordinate conjunctions]. 

2. Who, which, what, that [relative pronouns]. 

3. When, where, why, while, how [relative adverbs]. 

Require pupils to write, with each of the signs, a com- 
plex sentence. Pupils will exchange papers and correct 
under the direction of the teacher. 

Mote. — That, as a conjunction, is used to introduce ob- 
jective clauses after such transitive verbs as see, hear, feel, 
thinlc, wish, hoj)e,fear, ash, say, tell, state, Teiwrt, deny, di- 
rect, etc. 

5. Order of Parts. 

The grammatical order of elements in the complex sentence is like 



290 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

that of the simple sentence, except that the clause takes the 
place of the phrase. Thus : 
1. Sulject; 2. Adjective Clause; 3. Predicate; 4. AdverUal 
Clause. 
Point out the parts in the following sentences : 

1. The swallows that live in the old barn migrate when winter 
comes. 

2. Tlie boys whom we met said, they were going home. 

3. The man who lost his horse rewarded the boy that found it. 

6. The subject of a complex sentence may be a clause. Thus : 

1. [He] Who steals my purse steals trash. 

2. [The time] When he icill go is uncertain. 

3. [The fact] That you have wTonged me doth appear in this. 

Wote. — Sentences like the preceding are really con- 
tracted complex sentences, as will he seen ahove where 
the subjects of the principal verhs are supplied in hrackets. 

7. The predicate may consist of a neuter verlj and a noun-clause 

as the complement, or predicate nominative. 

1. The truth is, he knew nothing about it. 

2. His excuse was that he was poor. 

3. It is uncertain when he will go. 

8. Emphatic It. 
The use of the pronoun it to introduce a sentence by standing 
for a clause after the predicate makes a statement emphatic, 
and changes a simple into a complex sentence. 

Simi:)le. Comiilcx. 



1. Columbus discovered Amer- 

ica. 

2. Ccesar conquered Britain. 

3. Whitney invented the cot- 

ton-gin. 

4. Washington planned the 

campaign of Yorktown. 

5. He did it. 



1. It was Columbus who discov- 

ered America. 

2. It was Caesar who conquered 

Britain. 

3. It was Whitney who invented 

the cotton-gin. 

4. It was Washington who 

planned the campaign of 
Yorktown. 

5. It was he who did it. 



WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 291 

Exercise. 
Change the following complex into simple sentences 
without it: 

1. It was in the age of Greece tliat the seeds of civil strife were 

sown. 

2. It was the Portuguese who took the lead in maritime discov- 

ery. 

3. It is the brilliant figure of Spain that first attracts our attention 

at the beginning of modern history. 

4. It was in midwinter that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. 

5. It was Cromwell who said, " Paint me as I am, with all my 

warts and wrinkles." 

9. Conditional Clauses. 
Clauses of condition or concession are generally placed before 
the principal statement in order to add force to the expres- 
sion. 

Application. 

Copy the following sentences, and notice that the con- 
ditional clauses are marked off by a comma : 

1. If he did that, he ought to be punished. 

2. Though you have injured me, I will forgive you. 

3. Where you go, I will go too. 

4. When you are ready, we will start. 

5.. How you can talk so, I do not understand. 

10. Forms of the Complex Sentence. 

I. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES. 

Copy and punctuate the following, and state which are 
the clauses : 

Condition. — If you do wrong, you will suffer. 
Concession. — Though he is guilty, he will escape. 
Purpose. — lie ran away, that he might go to sea. 



292 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Cause. — He prospers because lie is industrious. 
Effect— Yovi speak so loud that you disturb me. 
Manner.— Yon walk as if j^ou were tired. 
Comimrison. — The water is colder than ice [is]. 

" The ice was clear as glass [is]. 

Place. — I will go where you do. 
Time. — Go when you are called. 

II. NOUN CLAUSES. 

State the use of each clause, whether as sulject, object, 
or predicate nominative after a neuter or passive verb : 

1. That the earth is globe-shaped has been proved. 

2. My reason is, I am tired. 

3. Is it true that the moon is made of green cheese? 

4. Where the Indians came from is not known. 

5. How it was done is a mystery. 
C. Who he was nobody knows. 

7. " Why do you eat my grass?" said the Wolf. 

8. " What long arms you have !" said she to the Wolf. 

9. He said that he Avould try. 

10. '• ni try, sir," said the brave boy. 

III. ADJECTIVE CLAUSES. 

Point out each adjective or relative clause, and tell 
what it limits : 

1. Franklin, ic/io invented lightning-rods, w^as an American. 

2. The snow, wMch fell to a great depth, blocked up the railroads. 

3. He is the oldest man that I ever knew. 

4. The time icJien [= at which] we shall start is uncertain. 

5. The reasons whij [=for which] he went are unknown. 
G. The place ichere [= in which] he lives is very beautiful. 

7. The ship in which they sailed was lost at sea. 

8. This is the boy whose lesson was perfect. 

9. It is the most wonderful story that I ever heard of. 

10. This is the cow that worried the dog that killed the cat, etc. 



WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 293 

Write a sentence similar to each of tlie preceding sen- 
tences. Exchange and correct. 

11. Contracted Complex Sentences. 
The clause in the comiDlex sentence is sometimes contracted by 
an ellipsis of the verb, the subject, or both verb and subject. 

Application, 
Orally, in the class, point out the ellipsis, and explain 
the punctuation of the conditional clauses : 

1. That house, when [it is] finished, will be the finest in the city. 

2. If you go, [it is] well ; if [you do] not [go], I must go alone. 

3. If [it is] required, the money will be furnished. 

4. Though [it was] cold, the day was glorious. 

5. While [we were] going to New York, we met an old friend. 

6. No wind that blew was bitterer than he [was]. 



SECTION III. — THE COMPOUND SENTENCE. 
1. Oral Introduction. 
Teachers will require each pupil, in turn, to compose an 
oral sentence which shall contain the co-ordinate conjunc- 
tion and. 

Model. — I shall go to-morrow, and you must go with me. 

Teachers' Note. — Sentences containing and will, in gen- 
eral, be compound, or contracted compound, sentences. 
The few exceptions must be explained when given by 
pupils. 

Exercise. 
In a similar manner each pnpil> in turn, will compose 
a compound sentence containing hut ; one containing or ; 
one with nor ; one w^ith either — or ; one with neither — 
nor. 



294 



METHODS OF TEACHING. 



3. Exetxise in Writing. 
A compound sentence consists of two or more iDrinci- 
pal statements connected by a co-ordinate conjunction, 
eitlier expressed or understood. 

Leading Signs of a Compound Sentence. 
Co-ordinate ( and ; or ; eitlier — or ; lotTi — and. 
CoDJ unctions. ( &Mi^; nor; neither — nor; and — tlien. 

With each of the preceding signs write two compound 

sentences. 

3. Contracted Compound Sentences. 

Study the clianges made in the following sentences, and 
tell hoio they are made : 



Full Comx>ound. 
1. I can read, and I can write. 
3. You must go, or I must go. 

3. Mary sings, and Jane sings 

too. 

4. The water is deep, and it is 

cold. 

5. You must not go, and lie 

must not go. 

6. They fought for their coun- 

try, and they died for their 
country. 

7. I care not when you go, nor 

do I care how you go. 



Contracted Compound. 
1. I can read and write. 
3. You or I must go. 

3. Both Mary and Jane sing. 

4. The water is deep and cold. 

5. Neither you nor he must go. 

G. They fought and died for 
their country. 

7. I care not when or how you 
go. 



Blackboard Synopsis for Review. 

r Simple. 
The Sentence < Complex. 

( Compound. 

r Word : noun or pronoun. 
The Simple Sid)ject. } Phrase : verbal noun. 

( Clause : dependent statement. 



WOEKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 



295 



r Intransitive verb. 
The Simple Predicate. < Transitive verb and object. 

( Neuter verb and complement. 
r Adjective : word, plirase, clause. 

Subject Modifiers -^ Nouns in apposition, with their adjective 

( modifiers. 

( Object : words, phrases, clauses, 
( Adverbial : words, phrases, clauses. 
Simple Sentence. — Prepositions. 
Complex Sentence. — Subordinate conjunctions, 

relative pronouns, and relative adverbs. 
Compound Sentence. -^ Co-ordinate conjunc- 
tions. 



Predicate Modifiers.. 



Connectives. 



SECTION IV. — EXAI^IINATION QUESTIONS IN LANGUAGE-LES- 
SONS AND GRAMMAR. 

Ifote. — The following sets of questions are given as 
suggestive models of practical questions to be used in oral 
or in written examinations : 



I. SECOND SCHOOL YEAR. 

1. I. Write your own name. II. The name of your teacher. III. 

The name of your father. IV. The name of the place in 
which you live. 

2. Write five sentences by telling what the foilov^ing animals do: 

I. Dogs. II. Cats. III. Horses. IV. Birds. V. Flies. 

3. Write five interrogative sentences by asking questions about — 

I. Fishes. II. Lions. III. Boys. IV. Girls. 

4. Make sentences out of— I. My mother. II. My father. III. My 

teacher. IV. My home. 

5. Write the correct form of these incorrect sentences : I. I seen 

him do it. II. I done the sum wrong. III. 'Tain't right. IV. 
Ain't you going ? Her and me are going. 



29 G METHODS OF TEACHING. 



II. THIRD SCHOOL YEAR. 

1. Write the name of (1) a person; (2) a i)lace; (3) the name of 

a river; (4) the name of an ocean; (5) the name of the State 
in which you live. 

2. Write five sentences, each composed of only two words — a noun 

and a verb. 

3. Change each of the sentences that you wrote above into an in- 

terrogative sentence, 

4. Write five exclamatory sentences, and remember to punc- 

tuate. 

5. Correct tlie following : I. We done wrong. II. Who seen him ? 

III. Does horses neigh ? IV. Was you there ? V. Does hens 
cackle ? 

6. I. What is a name-word ? II. What is an action-word ? III. 

Write a sentence having a qunUty-^soY(\. IV. Write a sen- 
tence with two nouns in it. V. Write a sentence with two 
'Derljs in it. 



III. FOURTH SCHOOL YEAR. 

1. "Tlie bees were humming among the flowers, and the birds 

were singing in the trees and bushes." Point out the name- 
words in this sentence. 

2. Write two sentences, each containing two quality-icords^ and 

draw a line under these words. 

3. " The boys read well, and the girls sing sweetly." Point out 

the adverbs in this sentence. 

4. "The girls read and write well, but they do not spell well." 

Point out the action-icords^ or verbs, in this sentence. 

5. "The man, woman, and girl were busy at their lesson." 

Change the name-icords in this sentence so that they may 
mean more than one. 

6. " boys fast." Fill the blanks in this sentence. 

What do you call the last word ? 

7. " The boys ran from the house througli the garden into the 

field." Point out the prepositions in this sentence. 



WOKKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 297 

8. "The good boy speaks well, and the industrious girls read 

finely." Point out the adjectives. 

9. Give a rule for capitals. 
10. Give a rule for periods. 

IV. FIFTH SCHOOL YEAR. 

1. Compare — 1. ?■<?<:?; 2. good; 3. had; 4. 2)lG(isant. 

2. Write the sentence " Bees are busy " in each of the six tenses 

of the indicative mood. 

3. Give the present tense and past tense — I. of two irregular verbs ; 

II, of two regular verbs. 

4. Write two declarative sentences with the following nouns : 1. 

Crickets ; 2. The gun. Change them into interrogative 
sentences. 

5. Write two exclamatory sentences. 

C. Write two rules for politeness, and make them simple sen- 
tences. 

7. Write four complex sentences, using in each one of the fol- 

lowing words : if, who, when, decause. 

8. Write two compound sentences. 

9. Write three rules for capitals. 
10. AVrite two rules for the jjeriod. 

V. SIXTH SCHOOL YEAR. 

1. What difference is there in the use of the letter s used as a 

7ioun-su^x and a ?je?'&-suffix ? 

2. Corn-pave fo^^e, worse, far, 7nost, dead. 

3. Punctuate and capitalize — 

1. The lamb said to the wolf who are you. 

2. Be good said a wise man and you will be happy. 

3. I cannot tell a lie said Washington. 

4. In the sentence " That life is long which answers life's great 

end," parse 1. that ; 2. is ; 3. long ; 4. which ; 5. end. 

5. Synopsis of the verb to study in the indicative mood, third per- 

son, singular, passive voice. 
13* 



298 METHODS OF TEACHING. 



VI. SEVENTH SCHOOL YEAR. 

1. Give the rules for the verb having two or more singular sub- 

jects connected by and; by or or nor. Examples of each. 

2. AVhat change is made in the root form of the verb when the 

subject is in the third person, singular ? When the subject is 
tliou ? 

3. Define (1) a simple sentence; (2) a complex; (3) a com- 

pound sentence ; (4) a sentence. 

4. Write a simple declarative sentence with "Fire" for the sub- 

ject; change it, first into an interrogative sentence, next into 
an exclamatory sentence, and then into an imperative sen- 
tence. Punctuate. 

5. What is the grammatical order of parts in a simple declarative 

sentence ? 

6. Define the subject of a sentence ; the predicate. 

7. Write a complex sentence with if; one with iclio ; one with 

when ; one with than. 

8. Rule for the punctuation of introductory or inverted adverbial 

phrases or clauses. 

9. Rule for the semicolon in a compound sentence. 
10. Rule for quotation-marks. 

VII. EIPxHTII SCHOOL YEAR. 

After the answers are written, let pupils exchange pa- 
pers and correct under the direction of the teacher. 

Set I. 

1. Write four rules for the use of the comma. 

2. Write two rules for the sign of the possessive case. Exam- 

ples. 

3. Rule of syntax for collective nouns. Examples. 

4. Give a synopsis of the verb to teach in the indicative and po- 

tential moods, third person, singular. 

5. Define each of the four kinds of pronouns. 

C. Define a simple sentence ; subject; predicate; phrase; clause. 



WORKING MODELS IN SENTENCE-MAKING. 299 

7. Give tlie leading signs of the complex sentence ; the com- 

pound sentence. 

8. Analyze the sentence " He laughs that wins." 

9. Correct the sentence " I thought it was her." 

10. Change into the plural form — 1. axis ; 2. chimney ; 3. loss ; 
4. leaf; 5. rest. 

Set II. 

1. Analyze the sentence " You or I must go." 

2. In the sentence " I supposed it to be him," parse it and Tiim. 

3. Write live rules of syntax. 

4. Write a simple, a complex, and a compound sentence. 

5. Write four rules of politeness, and state what kind of a sen- 

tence each is. 

6. Write the correct forms of the following : 

1. My dress fits bad. 

2. I guess its her. 

3. Who did she marry ? 

4. Whose there '? Its me. 

7. Change the sentence " Bees are busy " into each of the tenses 

of the indicative mood. 

8. Write from memory, and punctuate, a stanza of at least four 

lines of poetry. 

9. Write four forms of the complimentary closing of a letter. 

10. Write a sentence to show the use of the word tJiat as a rela- 
tive, a conjunction, an adjective, and an adjective pronoun. 



300 METHODS OF TEAClimG. 



Chapter YII. 

PUNCTUATION OF SENTENCES. 

Note. — These rules are condensed and arranged for use 
in grammar-school grades. 

I. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE. 

Bule I. — Declarative and imperative sentences must 
end with a period ; interrogative sentences with an inter- 
rogation point ; and exclamatory sentences with an excla- 
mation point. Examples. 

1. A rolling stone gathers no moss, 

2. How does a verb differ from a uomi ? 

3. How beautiful the clouds are ! 

4. Earn your own living. 

IIuIg II. — Adverbial phrases, when introductory, in- 
verted, or very emphatic, are cut off by a comma. 

Examples. 

1. In Jul}^, 1588, the Great Armada entered the English Channel. 

2. Out in the country, close by the road, under two tall elms, there 

stands a white cottage. 

3. Four centuries B.C., Greece was fast outgrowing her ancient 

f\iith. 

Teachers w^ill require pupils to point out other exam- 
ples in some assigned reading-lesson. 

Rule III — Participial phrases are, in general, marked 
off by commas. 



PUNCTUATION OF SENTENCES. 301 



Examples. 

1. The birds, singing in the trees, welcomed tlie rising sun. 

2. Disheartened by defeat, the enemy slowly retreated. 

3. The British, twice driven back, carried the redoubt on the third 

charge. 

4. The invention of movable metal types, made in 1436, was, next ' 

to that of the alphabet, the greatest of inventions. 

For otlier examples study an assigned reading-lesson. 

Rule IV. — More than two similar parts of speech, in 
the same construction, are separated by commas. 

Examples. 

1. The four fine arts are architecture, sculpture, painting, and 

music. 

2. Verbs are divided into transitive, intransitive, and neuter. 

3. Oranges, lemons, figs, olives, and grapes grow in California. ' 

For other examples study some assigned lesson. 

Bule V. — Minor rules for the comma. 

1. The words «s, namely, or to loit, introducing examples or illus- 
trations, are followed by a comma. 

2. The words " Yes, sir," or " No, sir," take a comma between them. 

3. The introductory words Resolved, Ordered, Voted, must be fol- 
lowed by a comma. 

4. Nouns in apposition, when limited by phrases, or by any adjec- 
tive except tlie, are marked off by two commas. 

5. An explanatory word, following or, must be cut off by commas. 

Examples. 

1. A noun is the name of anything; ns, London. 

2. Yes, sir, 1 will do my duty. 

3. Resolved, That the schools be closed on Washington's birthday. 

4. Washington, the father of his country, died in 1799. 

5. The atmosphere, or air, surrounds the globe. 



802 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Bule VI. — Minor rules for the period. 
Tlie period must be used — 

1. After abbreviated words, 

2. After initial letters. 

3. After a signature. 

4. After tlie title of a book. 

5. After the title of a composition. 

G. After the numerals 1, 2, 3, etc., when they mark paragraphs or 
examples. 

Teachers will illustrate by examples found in the read- 
ers. 

Iiide VII. — Rules for capitals. 
A capital letter should begin — 

1. Every sentence, and every line of poetry. 

2. Proper nouns and proper adjectives. 

3. Names of the Deity. 

4. The names of days and months. 

5. The first word of direct quotations. 

6. Sentences following Resolved, Ordered^ etc. 

7. The pronoun I and the interjection must be written in capi- 

tals. 

Bide VIII — Other marks. 

1. The curves (), or marks of parenthesis, are sometimes used to 

enclose an explanatory word or statement. 

2. The brackets [ ] are used to enclose the correction of an error, 

or an implied or understood word. 

3. The dash — marks a broken or parenthetical sentence. 

4. The caret f\ is used in manuscript when an omitted letter or 

word is interlined. 

Teachers will call the attention of pupils to the use of 
JjTackets^ to the use of the dash in the readers, and to the 
use of the caret in compositions. 



PUNCTUATION OF SENTENCES. 303 



II. PUNCTUATION OF THE COMPLEX SENTENCE. 

Rule I. — Introcliictoiy adverbial clauses are, in general, 
cut off from the principal statement by a comma. 

Teachers will require pupils to copy the examples, 
point out the clauses, explain the punctuation, and give 
additional illustrations. 

1. Before the storm began, we had built a camp-fire. 

2. If this be treason, make the most of it. 

3. When a nation wishes to make war, tlie opportunity is usually 

found. 

Rule 11. — Explanatory adjective clauses, introduced by 
who or ivhich [ = "and he," "and it," etc.], are cut off by 
commas ; restrictive clauses [ = " that"] require no commas. 

1. Explanatory Clauses. 

1. The king, who [= and he] was a merciful ruler, forgave the of- 

fence. 

2. The Missouri, which rises in the Rocky Mountains, is the chief 

tributary of the Mississippi. 

3. Plutarch, whose [= and his] Lives has been called the "Bible 

of Heroisms," lived A.D. 100. 

2. Restrictive Clauses. 

1. That is the man tcho aided me. 

2. It is the tallest tree that 1 ever saw. 

3. This is the book ichicJi you want. 

4. He is the man icJioin we saw yesterday. 

5. This is the flower that you spoke of. 

Rule III. — A noun-clause introduced by a relative 
pronoun and used as the object of a transitive verb re- 
quires no comma. 

1. I have told you w7io he is. 



oOi METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2. I know wliicli he will buy. 

3. I know who will go. 

Bide IV. — A noun-clause used as the subject of a verb 
must be cut off from the verb by a comma. 

1. That the earth rotates on its axis, was denied by the ancients, 
3. That illiterate electors should be intelligent voters, is not to be 

expected. 
3. That a piece of amber will attract light bodies, was a fact well 

known 600 B.C. 

Bule V. — When the sentence is introduced by the pro- 
noun it, and the noun-clause is put after the verb, no com- 
ma is required. 

Change each of the sentences under Itule TV. into a 
sentence introduced by it. 

Rule YI. — Commas must be used to mark off a paren- 
thetical expression when it comes between the divided 
parts of a sentence. 

1. He expected, it seems, to surprise the enemy. 

2. The man was murdered, it is believed, by a band of AjDaches. 

3. " Beautiful creature," said the cunning fox, " you sing like a 

nightingale.'" 

III. PUNCTUATION OF THE COMPOUND SENTENCE. 

Eule I. — Unless highly contracted, the principal state- 
ments, when closely connected, are, in general, cut off by 
a comma, and are alwa3^s so cut off when there are more 
than two principal statements. 

Examples to be CoriKD, 

1. Napoleon Bonaparte was of Italian blood, and was a native of 

Corsica. 

2. " Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge's name was good on 'Change for 

anything he chose to put his hand to." — Dickens. 



rUNCTUATION OF SENTENCES. 305 

3. Tea comes from China, coffee from Java and Brazil, and sugar 

from tlie West Indies. 

4. I came, I saw, I conquered. 

Study Till assigned reading -lesson, and point out five 
cases in wliicli the preceding rule is applied. 

Rule II. — Principal statements, when loosely connected, 
when very long, or when subdivided by a comma, are 
separated by a semicolon. 

Examples to be Copied. 

1. Tlie history of the Orient is the history of dynasties ; the his- 
tory of Greece and Kome is the history of the people. 

3. The Greeks were indebted to the Phoenicians for the alphabet; 
the Romans adopted the Greek alphabet, with some changes ; 
the Roman alphabet is the basis of our modern alphabet. 

Exercise. 

From suitable reading -lessons, teachers will point out 
to their pupils the application of the preceding rule to 
the punctuation of the piece. 

Rule III. — When a compound sentence is highly ellip- 
tical, or contracted, the omission of the principal statement 
before each of a series of clauses is marked by a semicolon. 

Application. 
" England has to undergo the revolt of the colonies ; [England 
has] to submit to defeat and separation ; [ ? ] to shake under 
the volcano of the French Revolution ; [ ? ] to grapple and 
fight for the life with her gigantic enemy. Napoleon; [ ?] to 
gasp and rally after the tremendous struggle." — Tliackeray. 

Rule lY. — Principal statements and clauses are punc- 
tuated according to the rules for the simple and the com- 
plex sentence. 



30G METHODS OF TEACHING. 



IV. QUOTATION-MARKS. 

Rule I. — When we use the exact words of anotlier per- 
son, we mark off the expressions or sentences with quota- 
tion-marks at the beginning and the end. 

Rule II. — In general, a cpoted sentence begins with a 
capital letter : C^sar exclaimed, " And yon, too, Brutus !" 

Rule III. — In general, a quoted sentence or expression 
is separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma; 
as, "I'll try," said General Miller. 

Ride IV. — A very formal quotation, placed in regular 
order in a sentence, is marked oif by a colo?i / as. Remem- 
ber the old adage : " A stitch in time saves nine." 

Ride V. — A quoted clause introduced by the word 
thcd is not marked off by a comma and does not begin 
with a capital ; as, It is said that " necessity knows no 
law." 

Exercise. 

Copy the following examples, and explain how the 
preceding rules are a23plied : 

1. "Don't give iiji the sliip," exclaimed the dying Lawrence. 

2. " What great tcetli you have !" said Little Red Riding-hood. 

" The better to eat yon with," said the wolf. 

3. "Vanity of vanities," saith the preacher, " all is vanity." 

4. " Language," said Talleyrand, " is made to conceal thought." 

5. There is a Prussian maxim as follows : " "Whatever you would 

have appear in the life of a nation, you must put into the 
schools." 

Study an assigned reading -lesson, and explain the ap- 
plication of the preceding rules to any quotations you 
may find there. 



KULE8 FOR WRITING GOOD ENGLISH. 307 



4 Chapter YIII. » 

EULES FOR WRITING GOOD ENGLISH. 

Wote. — The following practical directions, including a 
combination of grammar and elementary rlietoric, are in- 
tended for the use of teachers in the highest classes in 
the grammar-school, as a supplement to text-books on 
grammar. Let pupils copy the rules into blank-books ; 
the examples may be given orally, requiring pupils to 
give additional illustrations. 

I. W^ORDS. 

1. Tlie leading qualities of good composition are clearness, force, 

and brevity. Tliese characteristics depend mainly on the 
right use and right arrangement of words. 

2. A knowledge of the exact meaning of words may be acquired 

in various ways : 

1. By referring to the dictionary. 

3. By studying word-analysis. 
8. By reading good authors. 

4. By conversing with educated persons. 

5. By attention to the kind of words used in writing or in 

speaking. 
C. By the study of synonyms. 

p^r^^^l^ Z— Use the right word to express your exact 
meaning. 

Put in place of each italicized word some word accu- 
rately and properly used. 

1. Great quantities [numbers] of people were there. 



308 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2. Give us this day our diurnal [?] bread. 

3. The earth's daily [diurnal] rotation. 

4. Hallowed be thy appellation. 

5. He was danisJicd from school. 

0. Napoleon was sent to Saint Helena. 

7. How dear to my soid [?] are the scenes of my infancy ! [?] 

8. I admire \o hear her sing. 

Iiule IT. — UsG words in keeping witli your subject. 
Avoid dressing up little tliouglits in big words. 

Substitute simpler words in place of those italicized. 

1. The half-drowned boy was resuscitated. 

2. The conflarjration of the cottage was extinguished. 

0. The boys ascended an apple-tree. 

4. The money was devoted to eleemosynary purposes. 

5. We took a short pedestrian excursion in the garden. 
C. I purchased two apples. 

Hide III. — Avoid vulgarisms and slang, wlietlier low 
or fasliionable. Use English expressions in preference 
to French or Latin. 

Substitute in place of each italicized word or phrase 
some appropriate word or plirase : 

1. That resolution, Mr. President, can never be resurrected. 

2. The laborer is worthy of his wage. 

3. I was born and raised in Kentucky. 

4. It is the nepdus ultra of stoves. 

5. The statue was a clief-Wccuxire [masterpiece] of art. 

G. In this danger, he behaved with the greatest sang-froid [cool- 
ness]. 

Hule IV. — Use no redundant words or phrases; that 
is, do not repeat the same idea in different words. 



\ 



RULES FOR WRITING GOOD ENGLISH. 309 

Point out the redundant expressions in tlic following 
illustrations : 

1. He won i\\e^ universal love oi everylody. 

2. She is an invalid vi2JOor health. 

3. Mr. SiDcaker, I desire to make a few remarks before speaking. 

4. That book is mine, for I own it. 

5. The enemy retreated hacJv again to their camp. 

6. In my opinion, I think you are wrong. 

I^ule V. — Avoid pairs of synonymous adjeetiveSj strong 
superlatives, and exaggerated expressions. 

JVote. — Among the adjectives incorrectly coupled are 
"lovely and beautiful," "brave and courageous," "cruel 
and bloody ;" among the superlatives, " very," "immense," 
"stupendous," "enormous," "tremendous;" among exag- 
gerated expressions, "perfectly lovely," "elegant," etc. 

Ecduce the following to plain English : 

1. The morning is cold and chilli/. 

2. We were sweltering under a hot and burning sun. 

3. That is a tremendous big apple. 

4. We arrived tliere half starved, and the dinner was lyerfcctly ele- 

gant. 

5. There were millions of crows in tlie cornfield. 
G. I have had a splendid time. 

7. My hair stood on end. 

Eule VI. — Use the right preposition and the right 
conjunction : 

1. Your way is different to mine [from]. 

2. My hat differs ^cith yours [from]. 

3. I was to a large party last week [at]. 

4. Are your folks to home [at] ? 

5. We went in the garden [into]. 

G. No other cause was known lut carelessness [than]. 



310 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

7. You will not trust mc, and he will [but]. 

8. I wish I could write lile you do [as]. 



II. OKDER OF WOEDS. 

Bide YIL — Emphatic words should stand near the be- 
ginning or the end of a sentence. 

JS^'ote. — The grammatical order is, tlie siihject with its 
modifiers, verb witli its object or attribute, and the modi- 
fiers of the predicate. Force or emphasis frequently re- 
quires this order to be changed ; as, 

1. Proud though he was, he was at last humbled. 

3. Sweet is the breath of morn. 

3. Some he banished, others he put to death. 

Bule YIIL — Inconsiderable words must be kept from 
the end of a sentence. 

Note. — Among the unimportant words b.yq prejyositions^ 
the pronoun it^ a ^hovi predicate, etc. 

Examples. 

1. My brother is the boy whom the medal was given to [to whom 

the medal]. 

2. She is a lady whom all are pleased icitli [?]. 

3. It is a subject which we know nothing of [?]. 

4. He took the city and was afterwards made governor of it [?]. 

5. They will start on a tour round the world soon [?]. 
C. We shall go next week, if it does not rain, probably. 

Eide IX. — When the relative that introduces a restric- 
tive clause, the preposition is often thrown to the end of 
the sentence : 

1. He is the same boy that I spoke of. 

2. He is the tallest man that I know of, 

3. The big boys are the ones [that] you should begin xntli. 



liULES FOR WKITING GOOD ENGLISH. 311 

4. Where is the girl [that] you were speaking about? 

5. It is the very best use tliat you can put it to. 

Bale X. — "When both sexes must be specifically in- 
cluded, it is better, in general, to put tlie statement in the 
plural form, instead of the distributive singular, with 
"his" or ''her." 

1. Every teacher must make Im or liev report on the first of each 

month. [All teachers — tlieir reports.] 

2. Evenj boy and girl must study their lesson. [Incorrect, be- 

cause ci^enj is singular and tlieiv plural. We may say lih les- 
son, the pronoun standing for both sexes, or put the whole 
in the plural form.] 

3. Every man and every woman must earn his or her living [?]. 

Rule XI. — Use the possessive - case form of the pro- 
noun before a verbal noun. 

1. I had heard nothing about liis [not him] going away. 

2. What is the use of our [not us] trying to learn it ? 

3. We read the account of tlidr [not them] being lost. 

Rule XII. — In order to secure clearness, words, phrases, 
or clauses should be put as near as possible to the words 
they limit. 

Rearrange the phrases or clauses so as clearly to ex- 
press the meaning intended : 

1. These drawings were done by a boy that attended school 

merely for his own amusement. 

2. Wanted, a servant girl to take care of a child skilled in wash- 

ing and ironing. 

3. A pin was accidentally swallowed by a little child which had 

no head. 

Rule XIII — In general, put adverbs next to the words 
they limit; put the adverb only immediately before the 
word intended to be most affected by it. 



812 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Put the adverbs in the right place : 

1. He was [ ] engaged in the lumber irn^e formerly. 

2. Let lis drop a tear to his memory at least. 

3. I oiili/ whispered [ ] once or twice. 

4. We have only to learn two lessons. 

5. The two sisters nearly look alike. 

6. We not only intend [ ] to go, but also to remain there. 

Bide XIV. — Adverbial phrases or clauses are fre- 
quently put at the beginning of a sentence, either to 
make the statement more forcible, or to secure a pleasing 
distribution of adverbial elements. 

Eearrange the phrases and clauses : 

An old clock stopped suddenly early one summer morning be- 
fore the family was stirring without giving its owner any 
cause for complaint. 

Bide XV. — In conditional complex sentences, put the 
'?y-clause first : 

1. If he is a spy, he should be hanged. 

2. Though you have done wrong, I will excuse you. 

3. If we fail, it can be no worse for us. 

4. Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my heart and 

my hand for this vote. 

Bide XVI. — When a participle introduces the sentence, 
express in the context the noun or the pronoun which the 
participle is intended to limit. 

1. "Climbing to the summit of the mountain, the whole valley of 

the Sacramento was seen." TJiis may be corrected thus: 
" 0)1 cUiiibing — we saw," etc. 

2. Ascending in a balloon, the whole country seemed a panora- 

ma [?]. 

Bide XVII. — In adjective clauses, use icho or %ohich 



RULES FOR WRITING GOOD ENGLISH. 313 

wlien the evident meaning is "and he/' "and it," etc.; in 
other cases, use, in general, the restrictive that. 

Note. — When who or which means and he, and it, etc., 
it introduces an additional or explanatory statement ; that 
introduces a clause without which the antecedent is in- 
complete, and hence is restrictive. 

1. I lieard the news from my friend, who [=ancl lie] lieard it from 

the passengers that [restrictive] arrived hist night. 

2. lie forgot to keep his appointment, which [and this] was a 

great blunder. 

3. We wasted our time on old-style " parsing," which [=and this] 

is English grammar " run to seed." 

Note. — Mark off the who or wJdch adjective clauses by 
a comma. 

Bide XVIII. — In clauses introduced by than, as, as 
well as, etc., repeat the preposition or the verb when 
clearness requires it. 

1. The city had more attractions for him than [for] his friend. 

2. The teacher is stricter with boys than [with] girls. 

3. Teachers are stricter with children than jmrents [are]. 

4. He likes Maria better tlian [he likes] William. 

5. He likes Maria better than William [likes her]. 

Bide XZZ".— Keep the construction uniform unless a 
change is unavoidable. 

1. Apples are good for eating and to coolc, 

2. To-day is warmer and more pleasant [plcasanter] than yesterday. 

3. We had good reasons for expecting him, and to suppose [for 

supposing] that he would come by rail. 

III. BREVITY. 

Bide XX. — Use the smallest number of words needed 
f nlly to express the meaning intended. 

U 



311 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

Strike out all unnecessary words or phrases, or con- 
dense into briefer expressions : 

1. His lecture was brief, short, concise, and condensed. 

3. The morning was grand and glorious, the air was balmy and 
sweet with the scent and perfume of flowers and plants, and 
we rejoiced and exulted in the buoj-ance and light-hearted- 
ness of youth, and the strength and elasticity of youth. 



IV. FIGUExVTIVE LANGUAGE. 

[Simplified for Grammar-school Use.] 

" Altlioiigli it is enough for the teacher to have in view 
the exigencies of grammar, he may also ring a few of the 
rhetorical chano-es that are of common occurrence — as in- 
version of subject and predicate, interrogation, metaphor, 
and metonymy." — Bain^s Education as a Science. 

1. Both force and brevity of expression are increased by the prop- 

er use of figures of speech. 

2. The three leading figures of speech are personification, simile, 

and metaphor. 

I. PERSONIFICATION. 

Personification is that figure by Vv^hich animals are rep- 
resented as speaking like human beings, or by which in- 
animate things are represented as having life and action. 
It may be direct or indirect. 

1. Direct. 

1. " The better to see you with," said the Wolf 

2. The cunning Fox said to the Crow, " Beautiful creature, what a 

sweet voice you have I" 

3. Once upon a time ]Mr. Fox invited IMr. Crane to dinner. 

4. " There is a reaper whose name is Death." — Longfellow. 

5. " ' Death shall reap the braver harvest,' said the solemn-sound- 

ing drum." — Bret Ilarte. 
G. "I love Freedom better than Slavery ; I will speak her words ; I 



KULES FOIi WRITING- GOOD ENGLISH. 315 

will listen to her music ; I will stand beneath her flag ; I will 
fight in her ranks ; and when I do so, I shall find myself sur- 
rounded by the good, the brave, the noble of every land." — 
Balcer. 

2. Indirect. 

1. The trees waved their long arms in the air. 

2. The thirsty flowers ^\ ere fainting in the hot sun. 

3. The giant mountains lift their heads into the skies. 

4. The deep-mouthed cannon spoke in angry tones. 

5. " No wind that blew was hitterer than he." — Dickens. 

6. " There poetry dips its silver oar.''^— Baker. 

7. "Near yonder copse where once the garden smiled.'''' 

Exercise. 

Cliange into plain language tlie following: 

1. The wind is whispering to the trees. 

2. Tlie brook came leaping down the mountain. 

3. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! 

4. From peak to peak leaps the wild thunder. 

II. SIMILE. 

A simile is a direct comparison of one thing witli an- 
other, expressed by the words like^ as, than, etc. 

Exercise. 

Explain the points of resemblance between the things 
compared in the following examples: 

1. Human life is like a river. 

2. " Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.'' — Dickens. 

3. " How like a fiiwning publican he looks !" — Shakespeare. 

4. " The liberty of the press is like a great, exulting, and abounding 

river." — Baker. 

III. METAPHOR. 

A raetaplwr compares two things having some reseni- 



31G METHODS OF TEACHING. 

blance by stating or implying tliat one tiling is the other. 
Thus the metaphor is only an implied simile. 

Exercise. 
Point out the resemblance between things compared. 

1. Tliat man is a bear [/. e., He is as cross as a bear]. 

2. An idle scholar is a butterfly, 

3. "A tiling of beauty is a joy forever." — Keats. 

4. " All the world 's a stage, and all the men and -svomen merely 

players." — SlioJ-esjjeare. 

5. " My eyes cloud up for rain." — Lowell. 

G. " And yet through the gloom and the light, 

The fate of a nation was riding that night." — Longfellow. 

Exercise. 

Change into plain language the following metaphors : 

1. The raging sea swallowed up the ship. 

2. Death is the brother of sleep. 

3. Si3ring is a beautiful maiden, but winter is an old man with 

whitened locks. 

4. Youth is the morning of life. 

5. Old age is the winter of life. 

Require each pupil to give and change live additional 
examples. 

Rules for the JNIetaphor. 

1. Lii forcible statements, vse metaj^Tior instead of literal statement. 

1. "The ship ijloiiglis the sea" is shorter and more striking 

than "The ship cleaves the waters of the sea as a plough 
cleaves the land." 

2. The fortress is weakness itself = The fortress is very weak. 

2. Do not confuse metnj^hors. 

The following is attributed to Sir Bayle Roche: "Mr. 
Speaker, I smell a rat, I see him brewing in the air ; but, 
mark me, I shall yet nip him in the bud." 

Give five additional examples. 



KULES FOR WRITING GOOD ENGLISH. 61 i 

IV. MINOR FIGURES OF SPEECH. 

Force, clearness, brevity, variety, or beauty of exprps- 
sion may be attained in various other ways : 

1. Bt/ contrasting things : 

Talent is power, tact is skill ; talent knows tchat to do, 
tact knows token to do; talent is wealth, tact is ready 
money. 

2. Bf/ putting the name of one thing for another : 

1. I am reading Tennyson [i. ^., liis writings]. 
3. The pen [i.e., literature] is mightier than the sword [i.e., 
military force], 

3. Gray hairs [i.e., old age] should be respected. 

4. The teakettle [/. e., the w^ater] is boiling. 

5. He is fond of the bottle [i. e., liquor]. 

3. By the use of particular instead of general terms: 

General. Farticidcir. 

1. I have neither food nor 2. I have neither a crust of bread 

money. nor a cent to buy one. 

3. He is an uneducated man. 4. He can neither read nor write. 

5. A king in all his glory. 6. Solomon in all his glory. 

7. Behold the flowers of 8. Behold the lilies of the field. 

the field. 

4. By emphatic interrogation : 

1. Who ever heard of a happy tyrant? 
2? Who's the man would live a slave ? 

5. By an exclamation instead of a statement : 

1. What a glorious sunrise ! 

2. "A horse ! a horse ! my kingdom for a horse !" 

G. By addressing the absent asj^resent, the dead as living, or inanimate 
as animate : 
Instance of addressing the absent as present — 
Come, old schoolmates, dear companions. 
Sit around my lonely hearth, etc. 
Of addressing the dead as living- 
Spirit of Washington ! again lead our armies ; again guide 
our counsels. 



318 mp:tiiods of teaching. 

Or in the address to tlie mummy — 

" SjDeak ! for thou long enough bast acted dummy ; 

Thou hast a tongue ; come, let us hear its tune," etc. 
Of addressing inanimate as animate — 

Speak, marble lips ! Proclaim the love of liberty regulated 

by law. 
" Ye crags and peaks ! I'm with you once again." 
" Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll !" 

7. By exaggeration : 

1. The waves ran mountains high. 

3. Napoleon dashed down into Italy like an avalanche. 

3. He is tall as a pine and straight as an arrow. 

4. I icorship my father and adore my mother. 

5. The very walls will cry out in its support. 

8. Bi/ ridiculing under x>yctence of 2:>raislng : 

1. Pretty lords of creation ! when they can't take care of an 

umbrella. 

2. What an honest man ! to steal only half. 

3. " They've built us up a noble .wall. 

To keep the mdgar out. 

4. We've nothing in the world to do 

But just to walk adout.'''' — Holmes. 



IIISTOKY OF TUE UI^ITED STATES. 319 



Chapter IX. 

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
QUESTIONS FOE WRITTEN REVIEW LESSONS. 

Note. — The following specimen sets of questions may 
be given, one set at a time, to the class, in advance, and 
the written examination required at the next recitation. 
They include outlines of main events, which teachers can 
extend at pleasure. 

Set L 

1. Of the five great centres of colonial settlements, state where and 

by whom each was settled. 1. Jamestown. 2. Pl^anouth. 
3. New York. 4. Pennsylvania. 5. Maryland. 

2. Name five important events in the colonial wars. 

3. What events in the War of the Revolution were connected with 

each of these cities: I.Boston? 2. New York ? S.Phila- 
delphia? 4. Savannah? 5. Trenton? 

4. Name five American victories in the Revolutionary War ; five 

British victories. 

5. Give a short account of the most important battle of the War 

of 1812. 

Set II. 

1. What part did General Scott take in the Mexican War? 

2. Name the first and last battle in the War of Secession. 

3. Describe the battle of Gettysburg. 

4. Name five Union victories in the War of Secession. Five Con- 

federate victories. 

5. What was the Emancipation Proclamation? 

Set III. 
1. What causes led to the French and Indian War? 



320 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

2. The Kevolutionary War ? 

3. The Mexican War ? 

4. The War of Secession ? 

Set IV. 

1. When and how was shivery introduced into the United States ? 

2. When and how was it abolished ? 

3. What was the Missouri Compromise ? 

4. What is the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution ? 

5. What is the Fifteenth Amendment ? 

Set V. 

1. Name five American generals in the Revolutionary War. 

2. In the War of Secession. 

3. Name three leading statesmen of the Revolutionary period. 

4. Of the War of Secession. 

5. Name five American authors, and five American inventors, stat- 

ing what they invented. 

Set VI. 

1. What resulted from these wars : 1. French and Indian ? 2. 

Revolution ? 3. Mexican ? 4, Secession ? 

2. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence, who adopted it, 

and what was it ? 

3. What do you know about paper money in the Revolutionary 

War ? 

4. Who was Robert Morris ? 

5. What connection did Alexander Hamilton have with the finan- 

cial measures of Congress ? 

Set VII. 

1. Name five discoverers of the New World, and the parts of 

America discovered by each. 

2. Name five important persons in connection with the first settle- 

ments of the United States. 

3. Tell what causes led to the settlement of— 1. Massachusetts; 

2. Rhode Island; 3. Pennsylvania; 4. Maryland; 5. Georgia. 



IIISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES. 321 

4. Name five of the most important and. populous states in 1776. 

5. Name one important act performed by — 1. Sir Francis Drake; 

2. De Soto; 3. Balboa; 4. Champlaiu ; 5. James Oglethorpe. 

6. What was the Stamp Act ? 

7. When and where did the first Continental Congress meet ? 

8. Tell Mdiat imj^ortant service w^as performed by — 1. Patrick 

Henry; 2, John Hancock; 3. Benjamin Franklin; 4. Bene- 
dict Arnold ; 5. Thomas Jefferson. 

Set VHI. 

1. When and where w^as the first action of the Revolutionary War ? 

When and where the last ? 

2. What was the condition of the Americans at the close of the 

year 1779? 

3. In what year did Congress adopt the " Articles of Confedera- 

tion ?" In what year the Constitution ? 

4. Name five battles in the Revolutionary War in which the British 

were successful. 

5. What was the origin of " Mason and Dixon's Line ?" 

Set IX. 

1. Who invented tlie cotton-gin ? What did it do ? 

2. When, where, and by Mdiom w\as the first steamboat run upon 

American waters ? Give an account of the voyage { 

3. Prior to wdiat time wxn'c there no railroads in the United States ? 

Of what advantage have they been to the country ? Why is 
the Pacific Railroad a remarkable work ? 

4. When and where was tlie first telegraph line built? Wlio in- 

vented the electro-magnetic telegraph ? 

5. Who laid the Atlantic cable ? What docs it do ? 

G. Who invented or improved the sewing-machine? To what 
class is it a blessing ? 

7. In what respects is the printing-press of to-day better than the 

press which Franklin used in 1725 ? How is the world ben- 
efited by this superiority ? 

8. What is the object of American common-schools ? Ought they 

to be well supported ? Why ? 
14- 



322 METHODS OF TEAcnmo. 



ClIAPTEE X. 

PKACTICAL LESSONS IN SCHOOL ETHICS. 

I. LESSONS rOK YOUXGER PUFILS. — DUTIES OF CIIILDEEN. 

1. ResiKct for Parents. 

3Iaxims. 

1. Honor thy father and thy mother. 

2. Obedience is the first duty of a child. 

Hints. 

1. Always be polite to your parents. 

2. Always obey them pleasantly and cheerfully. 

3. Perform all your duties faithfully. 

4. Your j)arents provide you with a home, with food, and with 

clothing, and it is your duty to work for them whenever they 
ask you to do so. 

5. Read or tell to your class some suitable story to illustrate the 

lesson. 
G. Put this question to the class : ''' Wliy is it your duty to obey 
your parents ?" Draw out as many answers as possible, and 
converse about them. 

2. Gratitude and Love to Parents. 
Maxims. 

1. An ungrateful child is despised by everybody. 

2. Gratitude must be expressed in ads as well as in icords. 

3. Duties toicards Teachers. 
Hints. 
Question your pupils and find out what tlieir ideas of 
school duties are. At tlie close of your conversation, sum 
up your statements into directions like the following : 



PRACTICAL LESSONS IN SCHOOL ETHICS. 323 

1. Be orderly and quiet. 

2. Be punctual and industrious. 

3. Try to form good habits. 

4. Be respectful and polite. 

5. Learn your lessons as well as you can. 

6. You are not studying at school merely because j^our teacher 

tells you to study, but because you go to school for your own 
good. 

7. When you are idle and neglect your lessons, you cheat yourself^ 

not your teacher. 

4. Duties to Brothers, Sisters, and 'ScJioohnates. 

I. FORBEARANCE. 

Maxims. 

1. He is wisest that gives way. 

2. In a quarrel, be the first to conciliate. 

3. Offer an offender the hand of friendship when he meets you in 

a friendly spirit. 

II. COURTESY. 

Frecepts. 

1. When you do a favor, do it cheerfully and promptly. 

2. Share the work as well as the play of your companions. 

3. Refuse to take any part in what you think to be wrong. 



II. LESSONS FOE OLDEE PUPILS. 

1. Choice of Occupation. 
Precepts. 

1. First consult your capacity; your inclination will come of it- 

self. 

2. Every occupation has its peculiar burdens and disadvantages. 

3. Any lawful occupation may lead to success, 

4. Whatever you undertake to do, strive to do it to the best of 

your abilit5^ 

5. Aspire to the highest rank in whatever occupation you cngnge. 



32J: METHODS OF TEACIIINQ. 

Note. — Teachers will find many excellent extracts to be 
read to a class in Smiles's Self-Jielj) and Smiles's Biogra- 
2)hies. 

2. Industry. 
Maxims. 

1. Idleness is the mother of vice. 

3. An idle brain is the deviFs workshop. 

3. A young man idle is an old man needy. 

4. Industry makes all things easy. 

Note. — Teachers will find interesting extracts in Fraiik- 
Ihi's Autobiography., or Parton's Life of Fraiiklin. 

3. Economy. 

1. Spend less than you earn. 

2. Be economical, but not mean, or stingy, or avaricious. 

3. Be prudent and saving in youth as a safeguard against need 

in old age. 

4. Personal independence depends largely on the possession of a 

competence. 

4. Order. 
Precepts. 

1. Put everything into its proper place. 

2. Have regular hours for work, study, and play. 

3. Make it a point of honor to keep your appointments punctually. 

5. Kindness. 
Fncepts. 

1. Kindness is the sunshine of social life. 

2. When you have wronged another, do not hesitate to apologize. 

3. In conversation, avoid blunt contradictions. 

4. A cheerful, pleasant countenance is a good letter of introduc- 

tion. 



rRACTICAL LESSONS IN SCHOOL ETHICS. 



Siibjective. < 



G. Ethical Virtues. 
[As classified by Dr. Fricke.] 

I. VIRTUES OF CIIARACTEK. 

Cardinal Virtues. — Justice, Love [Kindness] 

1. Justice : 
Out of which grow : 
Self-knowledge. Temi^erance. 



Self-restraint. 



r Honesty. 
Objective. \ Fidelity. 

I Truthfulness. 



Moderation. 

Obedience. 

Punctuality. 

Conscientiousness. 



Love [Kindness] : 
Whence proceed : 
Siibjective. Self-respect. 

j Liberality. Kindness. 

Objective. < Charitableness. Forbearance. 

( Friendliness. Forsi-iveness. 



Self-denial. 

Determination. 

Liipartiality. 

Unselfishness. 

Gratitude. 



Patience. 
Frankness. 



ir. VIRTUES OF TEMPERAMENT. 



^ -. ,. ( Seriousness. 

SuJmctive. {,.... 
'' \ Activity. 

^,. . ( Cheerfulness. 
Obiective. { ^, , 
•" { Calmness. 



Desire to learn. 
Courage. 
Oentleness. 
Discretion. 



Intrepidity. 
Firmness. 
JModesty. 
Contentment. 



III. iESTHETICAL VIRTUES. 

Order. Decency. Courtesy. 

Cleanliness. Dignity. Manners. 



III. A TEACHER S MINIMUM LIBRARY. 

Note. — It is not to be supposed that the following list 
includes all the good books npon the subject, or that all 



326 METHODS OF TEACHING. 

those named are the best. There are many teachers who 
can afford to buy but few books, and I have named those 
that have been most serviceable to me. 

Science and Art of Teaching. 

1. Spencer's Education. 

2. Bain s Education as a Science. 

3. Spencer's Social Statics. 

4. Spencer's Saciology. 

5. Currie's Common-scliool Education. 

6. Russeirs Normal Training. 

7. Page's Tlieory and Practice. 

8. Horace Mann's Lectures and Life. 



THE END. 



VALUABLE AND INTERESTING WORKS 



FOR 



PUBLIC & PRIYATE LIBRARIES, 

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 



3W For a full List of Books suitable for Libraries published by Harper & 
Brothers, see Harper's Catai-ogtje, tohich may he had gratuitojisly 
on application to the publishers p>erso7ially, or by letter enclosing Nine 
Cents in Postage stamj^s. 

tW Harper & Brothers ivill send their publications by mail, 2}ostage pre- 
paid, on receip)t of the price. 



MAOAULAY'S ENGLAND. The History of England from the Ac- 
cession of James 11. By Thomas Babington Macaulay. New 
Edition, from new Electrotype Plates, 8vo, Cloth, with Paper La- 
bels, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, 5 vols, in a Box, $10 00 per set. 
Sold only in Sets. Cheap Edition, 5 vols, in a Box, 12mo, Cloth, 
$2 50 ; Sheep, $3 75. 

MACAULAY'S LIFE AND LETTERS. The Life and Letters of 
Lord Macaulay. By his Nephew, G. Otto Trevelyan, M.P. With 
Portrait on Steel. Complete in 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges 
and Gilt Tops, $5 00 ; Sheep, $G 00 ; Half Calf, $9 50. Popular 
Edition, two vols, in one, 12mo, Cloth, $1 'lo. 

HUME'S ENGLAND. The History of England, from the Invasion 
of Julius Caesar to the Abdication of James IL, 1688. By David 
Hume. New and Elegant Library Edition, from new Electrotype 
Plates. 6 vols, in a Box, 8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Uncut 
Edges and Gilt Tops, $12 00. Sold only in Sets. Popular Edition, 
6 vols, in a Box, 12mo, Cloth, $3 00 ; Sheep, $4 50. 

GIBBON'S ROME. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Ro- 
man Empire. By Edward Gibbox. With Notes by Dean Milman, 
M. GuizoT, and Dr. AVilliam Smith. New Edition, from new Elec- 
trotype Plates. 6 vols., 8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Uncut Edges 
andGilt Tops, $12 00. Sold only in Sets. Popular Edition, 6 vols, 
in a Box, 12mo, Cloth, $3 00 ; Sheep, $4 50. 

HILDRETH'S UNITED STATES. History of the United States. 
First Series : From the Discovery of the Continent to the Organi- 
zation of the Government under the Federal Constitution. Second 
Series : From the Adoption of the Federal Constitution to the End 
of the Sixteenth Congress. By Richard Hildreth. Popular Edi- 
tion, 6 vols, in a Box, 8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Uncut Edges 
and Gilt Tops, $12 00. Sold only in Sets. 



4 ValuuUe WorJis for Public and Private Libraries. 

ILVLLAM'S MIDDLE AGES. View of the State of Europe during 
the Middle Ages. By Henry IIallam. 8vo, Cloth, 1^2 00; Shce[), 
$2 50. 

HALLAM'S COXSTITUTIOXAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The 

Constitutioiial History of Engkmd, from the Accession of Henry 
VII. to the Death of George 11. By Henry Hallam. 8vo, Cloth, 

$2 00; Sheep, $2 50. 

HALLAM'S LITERATURE. Introduction to the Literature of Eu- 
rope during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. 
By Henry Hallam. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $i 00; Sheep, ^5 00. 

SCHWEINFLiRTH'S HEART OF AFRICA. The Heart of Africa. 
Three Years' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions 
of the Centre of Africa — from 1868 to 187L By Dr. Georg 
ScHWEiNFURTn. 'Translated by Ellen E. Frewer. With an Intro- 
duction by WiNwooD Re APE. Illustrated by about 130 Wood-cuts 
from Drawings made bv the Author, and with two Maps. 2 vols., 
8vo, Cloth, $8 00. 

M'CLINTOCK & STRONG'S CYCLOPAEDIA. Cyclopa3dia of Bib- 
lical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Prepared l)y the 
Rev. John M'Clintock, D.D., and James Strong, S.T.D. 9 voh. 7iow 
reach/. Royal 8vo. Price per vol.. Cloth, f 5 00 ; Sheep, $6 00 ; 
Half Morocco, !$8 00. {Sold by Subsc7-ipiion.) 

MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM : Lectures Delivered at 
the Royal Institution of (ireat Britain in February and March, 1 874. 
By R. BoswoRTH Smith, M.A., Assistant Master in Harrow School ; 
late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. With an Appendix contain- 
ing Emanuel Deutsch's Article on "Islam." 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

MOSHEIM'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, Ancient and Modern; 
in which the Rise, Progress, and Variation of Church Power are 
considered in their connection with the State of Learning and Phi- 
losophy, and the Political History of Europe during that Period. 
Translated, Avith Notes, etc., by A. Maclaine, D.D. Continued to 
1S2G, by C. CooTE, LL.D. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, 4 00 ; Sheep, $5 00. 

HARPER'S NEW CLASSICAL LIBRARY. Literal Translations. 

The following volumes are now ready. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 each. 

C^SAR. — Virgil. — Sallust. — Horace. — Cicero's Orations. — Cice- 
ro's Offices, etc. — Cicero on Oratory and Orators. — Tacitus 
( 2 vols.). — Terence. — Sophocles. — Juvenal. — Xenopiion. — 
Homer's Iliad. — Homer's Odyssey. — Herodotus. — Demosthenes 
(2 vols.). — TnucYDiDES. — aEschylus. — Euripides (2 vols.). — 
Livy (2 vols.). — Plato [Select Dialogues]. 

NICHOLS'S ART EDUCATION. Art Education applied to Indus- 
try. By George Ward Nichols. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; 
Half Calf, $6 25. 



ValuaUe Worlcs for Palllc and Private Libraries. 5 

TARTON'S CARICATURE. Caricature and Other Comic Art, in 
All Times and Many Lands. By James Parton. With 203 Illus- 
trations. 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $5 00 ; Half 
Calf, $7 25. 

VINCENT'S LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT. The Land 
of the White Elephant : Sights and Scenes in Southeastern Asia. 
A Personal Narrative of Travel and Adventure in Farther India, 
embracing the Countries of Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin- 
China (187 1-2), By Frank Vincent, Jr. Illustrated with Maps, 
Plans, and Wood-cuts. Crown 8vo, Cloth, ^3 50. 

LIVINGSTONE'S SOUTH AFRICA. Missionary Travels and Re- 
searches in South Africa: including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' 
Residence in the Interior of Africa, and a Journey from the Cape 
of Good Hope to Loanda on the West Coast ; thence across the 
Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean. By 
David Livingstone, LL.D., D.C.L. With Portrait, Maps, and Illus- 
trations. 8vo, Cloth, $4 50 ; Sheep, $5 00 ; Half Calf, $6 75. 

LIVINGSTONE'S ZAMBESL Narrative of an Expedition to the 
Zambesi and its Tributaries, and of the Discovery of the Lakes 
Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864. By David and Charles Living- 
stone. Map and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00; Sheep, $5 50; 
Half Calf, $7 25. 

LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. The Last Journals of David 
Livingstone in Central Africa, from 1865 to his Death. Contin- 
ued by a Narrative of his Last Moments and Sufferings, obtained 
from iiis Faithful Servants Chuma and Susi. By Horace Waller, 
F.R.G.S., Rector of Twywell, Northampton. With Portrait, Maps, 
and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00 ; Sheep, $5 50 ; Half Calf, 
$7 25. Cheap Popular Edition, 8vo, Cloth, with Map and Illustra- 
tions, $2 50. 

GROTE'S HISTORY OF GREECE. 12 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $18 00; 
Sheep, $22 80 ; Half Calf, $39 00. 

RECLUS'S EARTH. The Earth : a Descriptive History of the Plie- 
nomena of the Life of the Globe. By Elisee Reclus. AVith 234 
Maps and Illustrations, and 23 Page Maps printed in Colors. 8vo, 
Cloth, $5 00. 

RECLUS'S OCEAN. The Ocean, Atmosphere, and Life. Being the 
Second Series of a Descriptive History of the Life of the Globe. 
By ELisiiiE Reclus. Profusely Illustrated with 250 Maps or Fig- 
in-es, ond 27 Maps printed in Colors. 8vo, Cloth, $6 00. 

VAN-LENNEP'S BIBLE LANDS. Bible Lands : their Modern Cus- 
toms and Manners Illustrative of Scripture. By the Rev. Henry 
J. Van-Lennep, D.D. With upward of 350 Wood Engravings and 
two Colored Maps. 838 pp., 8vo, Cloth, $5 00; Sheep, $6 00; 
Half Morocco or Half Calf, $8 00. 



6 Valuable Worls for PiihUc and Private Libraries. 

NORDIIOFF'S COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED 
STATES. The Communistic Societies of the United States, from 
Personal Visit and Observation; including Detailed Accounts of 
the Economists, Zoarites, Shakers, the Amana, Oneida, Bethel, Au- 
rora, Icarian, and other existing Societies. With Particulars of 
their Keligious Creeds and Practices, their Social Theories and Life, 
Numbers, Industries, and Present Condition. By Charles Nord- 
HOFF. Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00. 

NORDIIOFF'S CALIFORNIA. California: for Health, Pleasure, 
and Residence. A Book for Travellers and Settlers. Illustrated. 
8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

NORDHOFF'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AND THE SAND- 
WICH ISLANDS. Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich 
Islands. By Charles Nordhoff. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

SHAKSPEARE. The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare. 
With Corrections and Notes. Engravings. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, 
$9 00. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, $5 00. In one vol., 
Svo, Sheep, $4 00. 

STRICKLAND'S (Miss) QUEENS OF SCOTLAND. Lives of the 
Queens of Scotland and English Princesses connected with the Re- 
gal Succession of Great Britain. By Agnes Strickland. 8 vols., 
12mo, Cloth, $12 00; Half Calf, $26 00. 

BAKER'S ISMAILIA. Ismailia : a Narrative of the Expedition to 
Central Africa for the Suppression of the Slave-trade, organized by 
Ismail, Khedive of Egypt. By Sir Samuel White Baker, Pasha, 
F.R.S., F.R.G.S. With Maps, Portraits, and Illustrations. Svo, 
Cloth, $5 00 ; Half Calf, $7 25. 

BOSWELL'S JOHNSON. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., in- 
cluding a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides. By James Boswell, 
Esq. Edited by John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S. With a Por- 
trait of Bosweli. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, $5 00 ; Half 
Calf, $8 50. 

SAMUEL JOHNSON: HIS WORDS AND HIS WAYS; what he 
Said, Avhat he Did, and what Men Thought and Spoke Concerning 
him. Edited by E. T. Mason. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 

JOHNSON'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Samuel John- 
son, LL.D. W^ith an Essay on liis Life and Genius, by Arthur 
Murphy, Esq. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, fS 00 ; Half 
Calf, $8 50. 

GRIFFIS'S JAPAN. The Mikado's Empire : Book I. History of Ja- 
pan, from 660 B.C. to 18'72 A.D. Book II. Personal Experiences, 
Observations, and Studies in Japan, 1870-1874. By Wh-liam El- 
liot Griffis, A.m., late of the Imperial University of TdkiO, Japan. 
Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Half Calf, $6 25. 



Valaable Yiorl's for Public and Private Libraries. 7 

SMILES'S HISTORY OF THE HUGUENOTS. The Huguenots: 
their Settlements, Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland. 
By Samuel Smiles. With an Appendix relating to the Huguenots 
in America. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 

SMILES'S HUGUEXOTS AFTER THE REVOCATION. Tlie Hu- 
guenots in France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; 
with a Visit to the Country of the Vaudois. By Samuel Smiles. 
Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 

SMILES'S LIFE OF THE STEPHENSONS. The Life of George 
Stephenson, and of his Son, Robert Stephenson ; Comprising, also, 
a History of the Invention and Introduction of the Railway Loco- 
motive. By Samuel Smiles. With Steel Portraits and numerous 
Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 

RAWLINSON'S MANUAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY. A Manual 
of Ancient History, from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the 
Western Empire. Comprising the History of Chaldaa, Assyria, 
Media, Babylonia, Lydia, Phoenicia, Syria, Judaea, Egypt, Carthage, 
Persia, Greece, Macedonia, Parthia, and Rome. By George Raw- 
linson, M.A., Camden Professor of Ancient History in the Univer- 
sity of Oxford. 12mo, Cloth, ^1 25. 

THE VOYAGE OF THE "CHALLENGER." The Atlantic: an 
Account of the General Results of the Voyage during IS'Zo, and the 
Early Part of ISYG. By Sir Wyville Thomson, K.C.B., F.R.S. 
AVith numerous Illustrations, Colored Maps, and Charts, from Draw- 
ings by J. J. Wyld, engraved by J. D. Cooper, and Portrait of the 
Author, engraved by C. H. Jeens. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $12 00. 

ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE. ' First Series : From the 
Commencement of the French "Revolution, in 1'789, to the Restora- 
tion of the Bourbons in 1815. [In addition to the Notes on Chap- 
ter LXXVL, which correct the errors of the original work concern- 
ing the United States, a copious Analytical Index has been ap- 
pended to this American Edition.] Second Series : From the Fall 
of Napoleon, in 1815, to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, in 1852. 
8 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $16 00; Sheep, $20 00; Half Calf, $84 00. 

WALLACE'S GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS. 

The Geographical Distribution of Animals. With a study of the 
Relations of Living and Extinct Faunas, as Elucidating the Past 
Changes of the Earth's Surface. By Alfred Russel Wallace. 
With Maps and Illustrations. In 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 00. 

WALLACE'S MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. The Malay Archipelago : 
The Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise. A Narra- 
tive of Travel, 1854-1862. With Studies of Man and Nature. By 
A. R. Wallace. Maps and Illustrations. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

BOURNE'S LIFE OF LOCKE. The Life of John Locke. By H. R. 
Fox Bourne. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $5 00. 



8 Valuable Worlcs for Public and Private Libraries. 

BLUNT'S BEDOUIN TRIBES OF THE EUPHRATES. Bedouin 
Tribes of the Euphrates. By Lady Anne Blunt. Edited, -with a 
Preface and some Account of the Arabs and their Horses, by 
W. S. B. Map and Sketches by the Author. 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

BROUGHAM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Life and Times of Henry, 
Lord Bi'ougham. Written by Himself. 3 vols., 12mo, Cloth, 
$6 00. 

THOMPSON'S PAPACY AND THE CIVIL POAVER. The Papacy 
and the Civil Power. By the Hon. R. W. Thompson, Secretary of 
the U. S. Navy. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 

THE POETS AND POETRY OF SCOTLAND : From the Earliest 
to the Present Time. Comprising Characteristic Selections from 
the Works of the more Noteworthy Scottish Poets, Avith Biographi- 
cal and Critical Notices. By James Grant Wilson. With Por- 
traits on Steel. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $10 00; Sheep, $12 00; Half 
Calf, $14 50; Full Morocco, $18 00. 

THE STUDENT'S SERIES. With Maps and Illustrations. 12mo, 
Cloth. 

Fkance. — Gibbon. — Greece. — Rome (by Liddell). — Old Testament 
History. — New Testament History. — Strickland's Queens op 
England (Abridged). — Ancient History of the East. — Hallam's 
Middle Ages. — Hallam's Constitutional History of England, 
— Lyell's Elements of Geology. — Merivale's General History 
OP Rome. — Cox's General History op Greece. — Classical Dic- 
tionary. Price $1 25 per volume. 

Lewis's History op Germany. — Ecclesiastical History. — 
Hume's England. Price $1.50 per volume. 

CAMERON'S ACROSS AFRICA. Across Africa. By Yerney Lot- 
ett Cameron, C.B., D.C.L., Commander Royal Navy, Gold Medalist 
Royal Geographical Society, etc. AVith a Map and numerous Illus- 
trations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 

BARTH'S north and CENTRAL AFRICA. Travels and Dis- 
coveries in North and Central Africa : being a Journal of an Ex- 
pedition undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, 
in the Years 1849-1855. Bv Henry Barth, Ph.D., D.C.L. Hlus- 
tratcd. 3 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $12 00; Sheep, $13 50; Half Calf, 
$18 '75. 

ADDISON'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Joseph Addi- 
son, embracing the whole of the Spectator. 3 vols., Svo, Cloth, 
$6 00; Sheep, $7 50; Half Calf, $12 75. 

TENNYSON'S COMPLETE POEMS. The Poetical Works of Al- 
fred Tennyson, Poet-Laureate. With numerous Illustrations by 
Eminent Artists, and Three Characteristic Portraits. 8vo, Paper, 
$1 00; Cloth, $1 50. 



Valuable ^Yorls for PaUlc and Private Libraries. 9 

THE EEVISIO^f OF THE EXGLISH VERSION OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT. With an Introduction by the Rev. P. Schaff, D.D. 
618 pp., Crown 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 
This work embraces in one vokune : 

I. ON A FRESH REVISION OF THE ENGLISH NEW TES- 
TAMENT. By J. B. LiGiiTFOOT, D.D., Canon of St. Paul's, 
and Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. Second 
Edition, Revised. 196 pp. 
11. ON THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW TES- 
TAMENT in Connection with some Recent Proposals for 
its Revision. By R. C. Tre.ncii, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin. 
194 pp. 

III. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE REVISION OF THE ENG- 
LISH VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By C. J. 
Ellicott, D.D., Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 178 pp. 

ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. The An- 
nual Record of Science and Industry. Edited by Professor Spen- 
cer F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, with the Assistance 
of Eminent Men of Science. The Yearly Volumes for 1871, 1872, 
1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878 are ready. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 
per vol. ; |;15 00 per set of 8 vols. 

BULWER'S HORACE. The Odes and Epodos of Horace. A Met- 
rical Translation into English. With Introduction and Commenta- 
ries. By Lord Lytton. 'With Latin Text from the Editions of 
Orelli, Macleanc, and Yonge. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

BULWER'S KING ARTHUR. King Arthur. A Poem. By Lord 
Lytton. 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 

BULWER'S MISCELLANEOUS PROSE WORKS. The Miscellane- 
ous Prose Works of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton. 2 vols., 12mo, 
Cloth, $3 50. Also, in uniform style, Caxtoniana. 12mo, Cloth, 

fl 75. 

DAVIS'S CARTHAGE. Carthage and her Remains : being an Ac- 
count of the Excavations and Researches on the Site of the Phoe- 
nician Metropolis in Africa and other Adjacent Places. Conducted 
under the Auspices of Her Majesty's Government. By Dr. N. Da- 
vis, F.R.G.S. Profusely Illustrated with Maps, Wood-cuts, Chromo- 
Lithographs, etc. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Half Calf, $6 25. 

CRUISE OF THE "CHALLENGER." Voyages over many Seas, 
Scenes in many Lands. By W. J. J. Spry, R. N. With Map and 
Illustrations. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 00. 

EATON'S CIVIL SERVICE IN GREAT BRITAIN. Civil Service 
in Great Britain. A History of Abuses and Reforms, and their 
Bearing upon American Politics. By Dorman B. Eaton. 8vo, 
Cloth, $2 50. 



/S 



10 YalucMe WorJcs for PuMic and Private Librariei^. 

CAELYLE'S FRP^DERICK THE GREAT. History of Frieaiicli IL, 
called Frederick the Great. By Thomas Carlvle. Portraits, Maps, 
Plans, etc. 6 vols., I'imo, Cloth, $12 00; Sheep, $14 40; Half 
Calf, $22 50. 

CARLYLE'S FREXCH REVOLUTION". The French Revolution: 
a History. Bv Thomas Carlyle. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50; 
Sheep, $4 30 ;' Half Calf, $7 00. 

CARLYLE'S OLIVER CROMWELL. Oliver Cromwell's Letters 
and Speeches, including the Supplement to the First Edition. With 
Elucidations. By Thomas Carlyle. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50; 
Sheep, $4 30 ; Half Calf, $7 00. 

DRAPER'S CIVIL WAR. History of the American Civil War. By 
John W. Draper, M.D., LL.D. 3 vols., 8vo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, 
$10 50 ; Sheep, $12 00 ; Half Calf, $17 25. 

DRAPER'S IXTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMEXT OF EUROPE. A 
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe. By Jonx AV. 
Draper, M.D., LL.D. X'ew Edition, Revised. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, 
$3 00 ; Half Calf, $6 50. 

DRAPER'S AMERICAX CIVIL POLICY. Thoughts on the Future 
Civil Policv of America. By John W. Draper, M.D., LL.D. Crown 
8vo, Cloth,' $2 00 ; Half Morocco, $3 75. 

MCCARTHY'S HISTORY OF EXGLAXD. A History of Our Own 
Times, from the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Berlin Con- 
gress. By Justin McCarthy. Vol. L ; 12mo, Cloth, $1 25. {Vol. 
IL Nearly Ready.) 

PERRY'S HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF EXGLAXD. A His- 
tory of the English Church, from the Accession of Henry VIII. to 
the Silencing of Convocation in the Eighteenth Century. By G. G. 
Perry, M.A., Canon of Lincoln and Rector of AVaddington. With 
an Appendix containing a Sketch of the History of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by J. A. Spen- 
cer, S.T.D. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 

BARTLETT'S FROM EGYPT TO PALESTIXE. From Egypt to 
Palestine : Through Sinai, the Wilderness, and the South Coun- 
try. Observations of a Journey made Avith Special Reference to 
the History of the Israelites. By S. C. Bartlett, D.D., LL.D., Pres- 
ident of Dartmouth College, and lately Professor in the Chicago 
Theological Seminary. With Maps and Illustrations. Bvo, Cloth, 
$3 50. 

THE FIRST CEXTURY OF THE REPUBLIC. A Review of 
American Progress. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 



uBTMf'i'^ 



